The Department of Telecommunications ( DoT ) is set to instruct operators to get back to their old ways of physically verifying customers, which will be a huge setback to the telcos who were hoping that the ministry will continue to push for Aadhaar for digital verification."The operators will be unhappy but we are left with no choice. The customers will now have to submit their documents which will be digitally scanned and submitted to the telcos' data base. It will be back to the earlier days," said a senior official in the DoT aware of the development.According to sources, legal teams have suggested to the telecom department that Aadhaar can be used in the physical form to verify while onboarding subscribers. E-copies of the 12 digit unique identification code can also be shown as proof but biometrics will not be accepted.For operators, if DoT's deliberations come to pass, it will be a big blow because they have been pushing the government to explore legal ways to bring back Aadhaar-based customer verification , which could involve either approaching the Supreme Court for allowing voluntary use of the unique 12-digit number for electronic know your customer (e-KYC) process or bringing in a legislative framework that backs this provision.However, officials told ET that although a decision has not been taken yet, the possibility of QR codes which was suggested by telcos in earlier meetings may not come to pass."We will try to work on a seamless method of digital verification using identity proofs but unless there is a change in legislation, telcos will have to work with this. Even if Aadhaar is brought back in some form of digital verification in the legislation, there is still time for that," said the DoT official.In earlier meetings with DoT and UIDAI, telcos have stressed that Aadhaar was the most secured way of digital verification requesting if the regulators can find ways to bring it back.Operators had complained after Supreme Court's verdict last month that not allowing Aadhaar-based digital verification would delay their consumer onboarding process by days and add to financial costs.The SC last month, struck down a provision in the Aadhaar Act that allowed biometric verification by private entities. Aadhaar-based E-KYC had helped telcos scale up quickly and save on the considerable costs required for paper-based verification.More than 90% of new subscriptions had come until the apex court's order using the unique ID due to factors such as convenience, though some avoid giving the biometric ID on fears around privacy and data leakage. More than 500 million, or about half of India’s mobile phone users, have linked their Aadhaar to their phone number.