Despite the earlier Supreme Court ruling stating that Aadhaar must be purely voluntary, the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore is now demanding Aadhaar for new admissions.

I have blogged about it at https://systemreboot.net/post/iisc-makes-aadhaar-mandatory-for-admission

I and a few others intend to speak to the administration soon and resist this new development. Let's see how it goes. Will post when there is more news.

Has it been made compulsory for other govt funded/aided institutions? If so, then it can be directly attributed to the government. The process might be enforced and the institutions might not have any other choice (maybe).

I do not know. I have no idea what is happening outside IISc.

But, this UGC notice seems to indicate that this move is being pushed by UGC/MHRD, and the Government of India. An institution like IISc would normally not do anything like this without being pushed into it by the government. I will try to find out more.

IISc is autonomous, and I assume that includes some degree of choice on these matters. I'm not sure about other institutions. Either way, the fact remains that making Aadhaar mandatory is illegal and contempt of court orders.

Apparently, the portion of the act that can make it mandatory has not been notified yet. But will be done so in the coming months (or so I've been told). I tried looking for keywords in the Aadhar Act, 2016 but could not find any mandate clause. Again, was looking for keywords only (it's 18 pages long).

The UGC says they are introducing UID based direct benefit transfer in colleges, because in many colleges, the government provided stipend does not reach the students. How true is this? If so, where does the money go? Who is responsible for this? Can UID really address the matter?

IISc has always provided the stipend on time. So, I'm not familiar with this problem. Could someone more familiar with the situation enlighten me?

I have asked my cousin who was benefitting from scholarships/stipends and he has never faced any problem.

Any other identity card would also serve this purpose. I don't see how by making aadhar mandatory - it is better. Will Aadhar replace all other identity cards in the future (except for probably passport)? The way it's headed the possibility seems higher.

Here are two news stories I found...

Just a bank account is really all that is required. And, they already take that anyway. Direct Benefit Transfers have existed and worked well before UID was ever created.

More news on this:

And this:

Latest news! With UGC scrapping their UID agenda, I guess IISc will follow suit. One small victory!

UID (Aadhaar) is back in IISc. Apparently, MHRD and UGC have changed their mind. 😠https://issuesofconcern.in/blog/uid-for-scholarship-in-iisc