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REGD. No. D. L.-33004/99
THE GAZETTE OF INDIA
EXTRAORDINARY
CG-DL-E-18072025-264775
PART II—Section 3—Sub-section (ii)
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY
No. 3194]
NEW DELHI, THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2025/ASHADHA 26, 1947
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
(Department of Higher Education)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 15th July, 2025
S.O. 3264(E).–Whereas, the use of Aadhaar number to establish identity enables individuals to receive
subsidies, benefits and services in a convenient and seamless manner, obviates the need for multiplicity of documents
to establish identity, simplifies processes and promotes transparency and efficiency;
And whereas, the Department of Higher Education (hereinafter referred to as the said Department) in the
Government of India (hereinafter referred to as the said Government) is administering the PM-Vidyalaxmi Scheme
(hereinafter referred to as the said scheme);
And whereas, collateral-free and guarantor-free education loans to all meritorious students; for students with
annual family income of up to Rs. 8 lakhs and who are not eligible for benefits under any other government
scholarship or interest subvention schemes, a 3 percent. interest subvention on loans up to Rs. 10 lakhs; and a credit
guarantee cover of 75 percent. of loan amount for education loans upto Rs. 7.5 lakhs (hereinafter referred to as the
benefits) are given to meritorious students who get admission on their own merit to Quality Higher Education
Institutions in India as per the list of Quality Higher Education Institutions provided by Department of Higher
Education each year and willing to avail benefit (hereinafter referred to as the beneficiaries) under the said scheme and
the instructions and guidelines issued in respect thereof;
And whereas, expenditure for the said scheme is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India;
And whereas, the said Department is desirous that the said Government, for the purpose of establishing
identity of a beneficiary as a condition for the receipt of the said benefit, require that such beneficiary undergo
authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or in the case of an individual to whom no Aadhaar
number has been assigned, make an application for enrolment;
Now, therefore, in pursuance of the provisions of section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial
and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (18 of 2016) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), the
Central Government hereby notifies the following, namely:
1. (1) An individual desirous of availing of the said benefit under the said scheme shall be required to undergo
authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number.
(2) In case such an individual has not been assigned an Aadhaar number, he shall be required to make an
application for enrolment:
Provided that if that individual is a child, such application shall be made only with the consent of his
parent or legal guardian.
(3) In accordance with the provisions of regulation 12 of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations,
2016, the said Department shall ensure enrolment of such beneficiaries who are yet to be enrolled, or update
their Aadhaar details through appropriate measures, including coordination with Registrars and setting up
enrolment centres at convenient locations or providing enrolment facilities by becoming a Registrar itself:
Provided that till such time an Aadhaar number is assigned to such beneficiary, he may establish his
identity to avail of the said benefit, by presenting the following documents to which he is entitled and which
are valid at the time of presentation, or, in case the software provided or authorised by the said Department
for such identification supports electronic obtaining of information proving the contents of such documents
from the database of the authorities dealing with the preparation or maintenance thereof, by giving his
consent for so obtaining, namely:—
(a) for a child below 18 years of age to whom an Aadhaar number has not been assigned, -
(i) the acknowledgement of the beneficiary having undergone the process of enrolment, provided
by the operator at the enrolment centre, containing the Enrolment ID; and
(ii) any one of the following documents to prove that the beneficiary is a child below 18 years of
age, namely: -
(A) Certificate of birth given under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969
(18 of 1969), as extracted from the entry made in the register of births regarding
the birth of the beneficiary;
(B) Indian Passport;
(C) Certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher
secondary or 12th class, issued by a recognised board of school education;
(D) in respect of a child in need of care and protection or a child in conflict with law,
who is housed by Child Care Institution registered as such with the State
Government concerned under the rules made by it under the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016), certificate specifying his date
of birth issued by the person-in-charge, superintendent, child welfare officer or
probation officer of such institution; or
(E) In respect of a foreign national, -
(I) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of
India Card;
(II) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners
Regional Registration Officer;
(III) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan;
(IV) if he is other than a Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Tibetan
refugee or a national of Nepal or Bhutan, either an Indian visa along with
foreign passport or a Long Term Visa to India along with currently valid
or expired foreign passport; or
(iii) any one of the following documents, having the photograph of the beneficiary, to prove his
relationship with the parent or legal guardian, namely: -
(A) Ration card;
(B) Caste certificate or domicile certificate, issued by a Gazetted officer who is an
Executive Magistrate or a revenue officer of the State Government, not below the
rank of Tahsildar;
(C) Medical or insurance identity card issued by a government entity or public sector
enterprise to a retired or serving public servant or his family member;
(D) Indian passport;
(E) Certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher
secondary or 12th class, issued by a recognised board of school education;
(F) in respect of a child in need of care and protection or a child in conflict with law,
who is housed by Child Care Institution registered as such with the State
Government concerned under the rules made by it under the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016), certificate specifying his date
of birth issued by the person-in-charge, superintended, child welfare officer or
probation officer of such institution; or
(G) in respect of a foreign national,
(I) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of
India Card:
(II) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners
Regional Registration Office;
(III) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan;
(IV) if he is other than a Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Tibetan
refugee or a national of Nepal or Bhutan, either an Indian visa along with
foreign passport or a Long Term Visa to India along with currently valid
or expired foreign passport; or
(H) in respect of a beneficiary who has a legal guardian, adoption order or other
document to evidence legal guardianship, which is issued by a court of law or
competent authority under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016), the National Trust
for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and
Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 (44 of 1999) or the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act, 2016 (49 of 2016) and the applicable rules and regulations made
under the said Acts; or
(I) any other document as the said Department may specify;
(b) for beneficiaries aged 18 years or more to whom an Aadhaar number has not been assigned,
(i) the acknowledgement of the beneficiary having undergone the process of enrolment,
provided by the operator at the enrolment centre, containing the Enrolment ID; and
(ii) any one of the following documents, having the beneficiary's photograph, namely:
(A) Elector's Photo Identity Card issued by the Election Commission of India;
(B) Ration card;
(C) Caste certificate or domicile certificate, issued by a Gazetted officer who is an
Executive Magistrate or a revenue officer of the State Government, not below the
rank of Tahsildar;
(D) Medical or insurance identity card issued by a government entity or public sector
enterprise to a retired or serving public servant or his family member;
(E) Indian passport;
(F) Certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher secondary
or 12th class, issued by a recognised board of school education;
(G) Identity card or other identity document issued to serving or retired public servant
by a government entity or a public sector enterprise;
(H) Disability certificate issued by notified medical authority under the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017, or Unique Disability Identification card
issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
(Divyangjan), Government of India;
(I) Driving licence issued in India;
(J) In respect of a child in need of care and protection or a child in conflict with law,
who is housed by Child Care Institution registered as such with the State
Government concerned under the rules made by it under the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016), certificate specifying his date of
birth issued by the person-in-charge, superintendent, child welfare officer or
probation officer of such institution; or
(K) In respect of a foreign national,
(I) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of India
Card;
(II) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners
Regional Registration Office;
(III) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan;
(IV) if he is other than a Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Tibetan refugee
or a national of Nepal or Bhutan, either an Indian visa along with foreign
passport or a Long Term Visa to India along with currently valid or
expired foreign passport; or
(L) in respect of a beneficiary who has a legal guardian, adoption order or other
document to prove legal guardianship, which is issued by a court of law or
competent authority under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 (8 of 1890), the
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (2 of 2016), the
National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental
Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 (44 of 1999) or the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (49 of 2016) and the applicable rules and
regulations made under the said Acts; or
(M) any other document as the said Department may specify.
(4) An officer designated by the said Department in this behalf shall check in respect of the
documents presented or the information proving the contents thereof under clause (3), —
(a) the status of the enrolment request by submitting the EID on myAadhaar portal
(https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/portal) to confirm that the Enrolment ID is valid and that
the enrolment request does not stand rejected; and
(b) the other documents, and for this purpose, he may take the assistance of and share the
information presented with any government entity or an authority that deals with the
preparation or maintenance of the information contained in such documents.
2. In order to enable beneficiaries to avail of the said benefits conveniently, the Ministry shall make all
necessary steps to ensure wide publicity through media to make the beneficiaries aware of the requirement of Aadhaar
number under the said scheme.
3. Where the authentication of the Aadhaar number of a beneficiary done through any of the biometric-based
modes of authentication (namely, facial image, fingerprints or iris scan based authentication) fails due to any reason,
such as poor quality of biometric information, the following remedial mechanisms shall be adopted, namely:
(a) in case any particular biometric-based mode of authentication is not successful, any other mode of
biometric-based authentication or one-time pin-based authentication shall, wherever feasible and
admissible, be offered;
(b) in cases where biometric-based or one-time pin-based modes of authentication are not possible,
benefits under the said scheme may, after establishing the genuineness of the Aadhaar number by
doing offline verification of the digital signature certificate of Unique Identification Authority of
India on the Aadhaar Secure Quick Response (QR) Code or the Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC
document, as the case may be, be given on the basis of any of the following, namely:—
(i) an Aadhaar Secure Quick Response (QR) Code containing Aadhaar card, Aadhaar
letter (i.e., the letter issued to an Aadhaar number holder on generation of his Aadhaar
number) or e-Aadhaar (i.e., the password-protected electronic copy of Aadhaar letter
downloadable from the website of Unique Identification Authority of India or
accessible using its mAadhaar app), after its genuineness is established through offline
verification by scanning the QR code using the Aadhaar QR Scanner or mAadhaar
apps;
(ii) Aadhaar Paperless Offline e-KYC document (downloadable from the website of
Unique Identification Authority of India or accessible using its mAadhaar app), after
its genuineness is established through offline verification of the digital signature
certificate of Unique Identification Authority of India on the document through the
application developed by the Ministry or Department or scheme implementing agency
concerned for this purpose, in accordance with the details given in this regard on the
website of Unique Identification Authority of India.
4. Notwithstanding anything contained hereinabove, —
(a) benefit under the said scheme shall not be denied to a child—
(i) in case of failure to establish his identity by undergoing authentication or to furnish proof of
possession of Aadhaar number; or
(ii) in case of production of an application for enrolment where he has not been assigned an
Aadhaar number; and
(b) benefit under the said scheme shall be given to such a child by verifying his identity and establishing
his relationship with his parent or legal guardian in the manner specified in the proviso to clause (3) of
paragraph 1; and
(c) where benefit is given under clause (b), a record shall be maintained in respect of the same, which
shall be reviewed and audited periodically by the Department.
5. In order to ensure that bona fide beneficiaries who are aged 18 years or more are not deprived of the benefit
due to them under the said scheme, the Department shall follow the exception handling mechanism specified in the
Office Memorandum number D-26011/04/2017-DBT, dated the 19th December, 2017 of the Direct Benefit Transfer
Mission, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India (available on https://dbtbharat.gov.in).
6. This notification shall come into force from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
[F. No. 17-17/2018-U.5-Part (1)]
PURNENDU KISHORE BANERJEE, Jt. Secy.
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and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054.