The Centre wants to make the Aadhaar card mandatory for acquiring a passport, and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is working closely with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to implement the measure at the earliest.

“In the new process, the applicant, if not in possession of an Aadhaar card, has to produce the Aadhaar enrolment number,” said a note prepared by the MEA that was sent to the Law Ministry, Home Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau, which was part of deliberations on the subject.

The MEA wants to put this in place by the end of the month.

The move could spark off a debate since the Supreme Court has ruled that Aadhaar, one of the flagship schemes of the previous UPA Government, cannot be mandatory for Government subsidies and social schemes.

New system: In the new process for getting passports, any applicant without an Aadhaar card will have to produce its enrolment number

“This is the reason the Law Ministry has been roped in and the subject will be discussed with all stakeholders,” said a government official.

The MEA’s proposal is part of a plan for simplifying police verification required before a passport can be issued.

A number of complaints are being received regularly regarding issues related to police verification and the consequent delay in issuing passports.

Checking the criminal antecedents of applicants is a long-drawn process that leads to delays. This has prompted the central Government to put in place a new mechanism.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is setting up a system for verifying criminal antecedents of applicants.

“The NCRB has confirmed that they will be able to set up the validation mechanism within two months.

"Once this is established, the criminal antecedents of the applicants will be validated on the NCRB database before passport issuance,” the MEA’s note said.

The MEA is of the view that when an applicant already has an Aadhaar card or has applied for it, the identity is established to a major extent but this needs to be confirmed by UIDAI.

The UIDAI has issued nearly 70 crore Aadhaar cards, according to the latest data, and the NDA Government recently gave fresh impetus to the scheme by linking it to several programmes such as MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, pensions and even attendance systems in Government offices.

Aadhaar has covered 90 per cent of the population in nine states, including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.

After the NDA Government came to power, there was speculation that the Aadhaar card project started by the UPA would take a back seat but that did not happen as the new dispensation gave it a push.