Government of India in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology established the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority, under the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (“Aadhaar Act”) on 12 July 2016. Under the Aadhaar Act, UIDAI is responsible for Aadhaar enrolment and authentication, including operation and management of all stages of Aadhaar life cycle, developing the policy, procedure, and system for issuing Aadhaar numbers to individuals and perform authentication and the security of identity information and authentication records of individuals.

The Aadhaar Act was amended by the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 (14 of 2019) w.e.f. 25.7.2019. Through this amendment, it is provided under section 4(4) of the Aadhaar Act, that entities may be allowed to perform authentication on voluntary basis if UIDAI is satisfied that the requesting entity is compliant with standards of privacy and security specified by regulations and is permitted by law to offer authentication services or seeks authentication for a prescribed purpose. Pursuant to this amendment, the said purposes were prescribed by the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 w.e.f. 5.8.2020. SWIK rules provides that Aadhaar authentication by requesting entities may be allowed for the purposes of usage of digital platforms to ensure good governance, prevention of dissipation of social welfare benefits and enablement of innovation and the spread of knowledge.