The cabinet approved amendments to communications and money laundering laws to comply with Supreme Court rulings relating to privacy and Aadhaar, sources said.Amendments to the Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will allow use of the 12-digit biometric ID for obtaining mobile numbers or opening bank accounts if customers opt for its use. ET had reported on Monday that the government was considering amendments to these laws to provide for this.“The Supreme Court had given two rulings — one on privacy (in August) and another on Aadhaar (in September). The amendment is in compliance with those judgements,” said a person aware of developments.The amendments are expected to be introduced in Parliament in the ongoing winter session.Once these are approved, Aadhaar can be used voluntarily by banks and telecom companies to authenticate new customers.Any attempt to hack into the Aadhaar database will be punishable by 10 years in jail, up from three, according to the amendments approved on Monday to strengthen the privacy ecosystem.The Supreme Court had struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act that had allowed sharing of data with private entities for verification, forcing the telecom and banking sectors to stop using the system that had speeded up the process to a few minutes. They were required to revert to the earlier cumbersome and costly physical verification of addresses and identities.Amendments to the Telegraph Act will provide legal backing to voluntary Aadhaar-based verification for obtaining a connection. Likewise, amendments to the PMLA will facilitate use of Aadhaar for the knowyour-customer verification process required to open a bank account.The Supreme Court had in its September ruling upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar for the distribution of state-sponsored welfare subsidies but ruled against its mandatory linking with bank account or telephone connections.Those minors who have an Aadhaar number will have the option to withdraw from the biometric system on attaining 18 years of age, in keeping with the spirit that it should not be mandatory. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will then be required to delete all the information of such a person.The cabinet’s decision may not have a big impact on telcos, according to one executive.“Aadhaar was never mandatory for us,” said a senior executive of one of the three main private operators. “After the Supreme Court verdict we started with the earlier method of registering customers using the forms and now use the QR code generated on authenticated applications (APPs) hosted on our sites.”