The Indian government has introduced a new initiative to strengthen the safe and secure custody of prisoners and ensure the delivery of entitled benefits to them. All prisoners and their visitors will now have to undergo Aadhaar authentication.
The Union Home Ministry has communicated to all state governments and union territory administrations that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and ePrisons team have prepared a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document for Aadhaar linking or Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and their visitors with ePrisons platform for the convenience of all prison authorities.
The home ministry has requested state and UT prison authorities to make use of the facility of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and the visitors to prison inmates. However, the ministry has also said that while doing this, the prison authorities shall adhere to all relevant guidelines on use of Aadhaar authentication as laid down by the central government from time to time.
The union home ministry was authorized to carry out Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and their visitors earlier this year. The ministry accordingly issued the requisite gazette notifications on March 6 and September 29 respectively, notifying that the prison departments of the states and union territories are allowed to perform Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and their visitors.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC)/ePrisons has been registered as a sub authentication user agency for facilitating the process of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates.
