Gazette Notification for use of Aadhaar under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 in respect of Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Scheme under Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals reg.

REGD. No. D. L.-33004/99 The Gazette of India CG-DL-E-20022026-270368 EXTRAORDINARY PART II-Section 3-Sub-section (ii) PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY No. 893] NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2026/PHALGUNA 1, 1947 MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 19th February, 2026 S.O. 935(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 Office of the Welfare Commissioner, Bhopal Gas Victims, Bhopal (hereinafter referred to as the said agency) under the administrative purview of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (hereinafter referred to as the said Department) in the Government of India (hereinafter referred to as the said Government) is administering the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster (Registration and Processing of Claims) Scheme, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the said Scheme); And whereas, the ex-gratia compensation (hereinafter referred to as the said benefit) is given to the Death, Permanent Disability, Injury of Utmost Severity, Cancer, Total Renal Failure and Temporary Disability categories of gas victims (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 agency 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 Government of India hereby notifies the following, namely:— 2. (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 agency 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 agency for such identification supports electronic obtaining of information evidencing 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:— For a child below 18 years of age to whom an Aadhaar number has not been assigned: (a) The acknowledgement of the beneficiary having undergone the process of enrolment, provided by the operator at the enrolment centre, containing the Enrolment ID (EID); and (b) Any one of the following documents to evidence that the beneficiary is a child below 18 years of age, namely:- (i) certificate of birth given under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, as extracted from the entry made in the register of births regarding the birth of the beneficiary; (ii) Indian passport; (iii) certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher secondary or 12th class, issued by a recognised Board of school education; (iv) 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 (v) in respect of a foreign national, — (a) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of India Card; (b) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners Regional Registration Office; (c) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan; (d) 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 c. Any one of the following documents, having the photograph of the beneficiary, to evidence his relationship with the parent or legal guardian, namely: - (i) ration card; (ii) 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; (iii) 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; (iv) Indian passport; (v) certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher secondary or 12th class, issued by a recognised board of school education; (vi) 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 (vii) in respect of a foreign national,- (A) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of India Card; (B) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners Regional Registration Office; (C) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan; (D) 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 (viii) 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 (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 (ix) any other document as the said Department may specify. For beneficiaries aged 18 years or more to whom an Aadhaar number has not been assigned: (a) The acknowledgement of the beneficiary having undergone the process of enrolment, provided by the operator at the enrolment centre, containing the Enrolment ID; and (b) Any one of the following documents, having the beneficiary's photograph, namely:- (i) Elector's Photo Identity Card issued by the Election Commission of India; (ii) ration card; (iii) 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; (iv) 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; (v) Indian passport; (vi) certificate or statement of marks of matriculation or 10th class or higher secondary or 12th class, issued by a recognised board of school education; (vii) identity card or other identity document issued to serving or retired public servant by a government entity or a public sector enterprise; (viii) disability certificate issued by notified medical authority under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2017, or Unique Disability Identification (UDID) card issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Government of India; (ix) driving licence issued in India; (x) 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 (xi) in respect of a foreign national, — (A) if he is an Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, Overseas Citizen of India Card; (B) if he is a Tibetan refugee, registration certificate issued by a Foreigners Regional Registration Office; (C) if he is a national of Nepal or Bhutan, passport of Nepal or Bhutan; (D) 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 (xii) 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 (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 (xiii) 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 evidencing the contents thereof under clause (3),— (a) the status of the enrolment request by submitting the Enrolment ID 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, 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 (OTP) based authentication shall, wherever feasible and admissible, be offered; ((b) in cases where biometric-based or OTP-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: (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 agency shall follow the exception handling mechanism specified in the Office Memorandum no. 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 with effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. [F. No. BH.11011/1/2016-BH] DEEPANKAR ARON, Jt. Secy.