T.K.Rohit, Chennai
Despite the government extending the deadline for linking Aadhaar to
various services to March 31, 2018, many insurance companies are
insisting that customers part with their Aadhaar details for accessing
their services.
Principal among such insurers is the Life Insurance Corporation Of
India (LIC), whose newly designed web portal requires mandatory
registration of policy holders' Aadhaar details to even access their
own policy pages. It also seems to be the first instance of its kind
when access to a web page is denied for want of Aadhaar details.
If a customer doesn't update his or her Aadhaar number upon signing
in, they will not be able to move to their policy page to access their
payment history, policy documents or any other details on the LIC's
website. LIC's insistence on Aadhaar to even access the policy page on
its website violates the spirit of both the Supreme Court's orders and
the insurance regulator's circular on the deadline, say legal experts.
" This is worse than a paywall. It is an act of coercion," said a
leading lawyer who didn't wish to be identified. The Prevention of
Money Laundering (Seventh Amendment) Rules, 2017, extending the
Aadhaar deadline to the end of March, was notified on December 13.
Following this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
(IRDA) issued a notification to that effect.
Several people who spoke to The Hindu said they were unable to log
on to their own profile page to access their insurance premium records
on LIC's website without linking their policies with their Aadhaar
numbers.
Policy-holder Prasanto K. Roy said since he had to download his
policy receipts, he had no other way out but to submit his Aadhaar
number to access his account. R. Steve Wilfred too faced the same
issue. " It was my mom's LIC account. The Aadhaar and PAN details are
not updated with LIC. But my sister did update her account to pay the
premium," Mr. Wilfred said.
When the issue was raised by The Hindu with a top official at LIC
on Tuesday, the official said he needed to consult with superiors on
the issue and would revert in a day.
However, a day later no reply was received. An email to IRDA
Chairman on Tuesday did not elicit a reply till the time of going to
press.
Some other insurance companies are also turning a blind eye to the
norm, claim many citizens who have faced such hurdles of late. This is
not limited to life insurance, but is also seen among holders of
health, motor and travel insurance policies as well.
Customers cite the IRDA guidelines that say that " the date of
submission of the Aadhaar Number or Form 60 by the clients to the
reporting entity is 31st March, 2018 or six months from the date of
commencement of account based relationship." Yet, without any update
being provided to them by their insurance companies, they are being
forced to link Aadhaar even when the Supreme Court is yet to give a
final decision on the issue, they say.
( THE HINDU, CHENNAI city edition, Thursday, January 18, 2018 )
Courtesy : MPS
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