Kerala High Court Upholds Aadhaar Verification for Tatkal Tickets, Dismisses Privacy Challenge
The Kerala High Court has ruled that the requirement of Aadhaar authentication for booking tickets under the Tatkal scheme of Indian Railways does not violate the Right to Privacy of users.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V.M. Syam Kumar made the observation while hearing a public interest litigation that challenged the mandatory Aadhaar-based OTP authentication in the Tatkal ticketing system introduced by the Ministry of Railways.
The court noted that the authentication is optional and there is no compulsion to share Aadhaar details for online ticket purchases through the IRCTC website. The bench stated that the authentication requirement for Tatkal tickets was justified in light of widespread complaints about deceit, manipulation, and bulk booking by touts and automated software, which prevented genuine users from accessing the system.
The Ministry of Railways, the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), and IRCTC submitted statements explaining that the policy aims to ensure that only genuine individual users can access the Tatkal booking system, preventing bulk booking by touts, syndicates, and automated software.
The court was informed that the Aadhaar-based authentication operates strictly within the statutory framework of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, and related regulations. Authentication is carried out only with the informed consent of the user, through encrypted communication channels, and following data minimisation principles. The requesting entity does not have access to the Aadhaar database, and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) maintains strict regulatory control, audits, and security safeguards. Additionally, only the IRCTC user needs to be authenticated, not all passengers in the booking, and the verification is a one-time process, not required for every booking.
Considering the information provided, the court held that there is no violation of privacy rights. The court suggested that PAN cards could be used as an alternative for verification, as OTP generation linked to PAN details would produce similar results to Aadhaar verification.
