Delhi High Court orders mandatory biometric Aadhaar checks for all GST registrations

In a landmark order, the Delhi High Court mandated that biometric Aadhaar authentication be applied to all GST registration applications across India, emphasizing the need to stop fraudulent registrations that exploit stolen or frozen PAN and Aadhaar information. The Division Bench, consisting of Justice Anil Khetarpal and Justice Shail Jain, highlighted the financial damage and inconvenience to legitimate taxpayers, referencing a petition filed by Neha whose personal data was used fraudulently.

The court observed that only applications flagged as "risky" were undergoing biometric checks, despite a stated policy of mandatory verification. It allowed officials to report any operational challenges and urged them to adopt recommendations from Senior Advocate Tarun Gulati, including facial recognition, video verification, and real-time alerts to PAN holders. Data presented by the Ministry of Finance showed thousands of fraudulent registrations and billions of rupees in evaded tax over the past two fiscal years. The order will be revisited on September 22, 2026, to assess compliance and address any outstanding issues.