Provide Aadhaar to rent bikes now, experts consider its illegal and sub judice

Hyderabad: The ubiquitous Aadhaar number must be produced even to rent two-wheelers and cycles at Hyderabad Metro Rail stations, together with a driver’s licence for scooters.

Service providers say it is to secure the vehicles from theft and Aadhaar is unique to a person. Agencies such as Metrobike.in and Nextbike which provide the last mile connectivity by providing scooters and bicycles for rent seek Aadhaar details to complete the registration process.

Most private companies want to use Aadhaar for fraud detection, as bikes can be stolen by registering using multiple names, different phone numbers and orders. To keep a check on such instances, because a person can’t produce multiple Aadhaar numbers, unlike other identities, private organisations prefer Aadhaar.

“Aadhaar gives us security. Aadhaar is integrated to everything, so it becomes a good process for us to validate the user. It is good identity verification as it is much more fool-proof,” said Vivekananda Hallekere, co-founder of Metrobikes.in.

However, UIDAI so far hasn’t issued guidelines about entities with which one can share Aadhaar. They only say that whenever you are sharing your Aadhaar or related information, ensure that you know the purpose for which it is being collected by the service provider.

Srinivas Kodali, independent security researcher, points out that the UIDAI guidelines of Aadhaar are being misinterpreted. “As per the UIDAI Act a person can use Aadhaar anywhere and everywhere. Nobody can deny you anything and everything when you produce the ID. But what is happening is a private company only wants that since it is unique. However, it is illegal because the matter is sub judice and the Supreme Court has extended all the Aadhaar deadlines,” he said.