The story to date: On April 30, the Supreme Courtroom (SC) directed revisions to Know-Your-Buyer (KYC) digital norms to make sure accessibility for ‘individuals with disabilities’ (PwD), reinterpreting Article 21 of the Structure to embody the ‘proper to digital entry’.
What legal guidelines safeguard rights of PwD?
The Structure, by way of its Preamble, Basic Rights, and Directive Ideas, alongside incapacity statutes, obligates the state to adapt legal guidelines, insurance policies, and infrastructure which permit PwDs to train their rights on par with others. Advancing these ensures and giving impact to the Conference on the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities (UNCRPD), India enacted the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which adopted a ‘social-barrier’ strategy that defines incapacity as arising from impairments, together with bodily, psychological, mental, social, and psycho-social obstacles which make full participation in society tough.
Crucially, Part 42 of the RPwD Act, 2016, mandates ‘authorities measures’ to make sure that all audio, print, and digital media are accessible; that digital media consists of audio description, sign-language interpretation, and captions; and that on a regular basis digital items and gear comply with ‘universal-design’ rules.
Are KYC particulars obligatory?
To curb unlawful finance and cash laundering, the Prevention of Cash-laundering Act, 2002 (and its 2005 Guidelines) mandates each financial institution and monetary establishment to confirm shopper identities, keep complete data, and report related info to the Monetary Intelligence Unit. Consequently, digital KYC verification has turn out to be indispensable for a variety of important providers — from opening a financial institution, demat or buying and selling account to accessing SIM playing cards, pension schemes or insurance coverage insurance policies. It additionally unlocks authorities advantages — from nationwide scholarships to Aadhaar-linked ‘direct profit transfers’.
Constructing on this mandate, the RBI’s 2016 Grasp Route on Know Your Buyer (KYC) guidelines prescribe a Buyer Due Diligence (CDD) framework and, through Clause 18, introduces Video-based Buyer Identification Course of (V-CIP), enabling distant buyer verification by way of safe, real-time video interplay. Clients can show their identification on-line by clicking a selfie; signing on a paper bodily or digitally; printing and rescanning, or clicking a photograph of the filled-in type; verifying OTPs in 30 seconds; and studying a random code flashed on the display screen.
How does it have an effect on PwDs?
Acid-attack survivors left with everlasting ‘facial disfigurement’ and extreme eye burns — and people with full blindness or low imaginative and prescient — have filed writ petitions in search of instructions to respondents, together with RBI, the Division of Telecommunications and SEBI, to plan various digital KYC, e-KYC and video-KYC strategies to make distant identification checks inclusive for all PwDs as they face important hurdles below the present framework.
At the moment, every ‘regulated entity’ has to plan its personal exams. Strategies reminiscent of eye-blinking, studying a flashing code, or writing it down and taking a selfie exclude blind customers. Regardless of clear mandates within the 2021 and 2022 Info and Communication Expertise (ICT) Accessibility Requirements, most KYC apps and web sites flout them — there is no such thing as a screen-reader immediate for digital camera alignment, no audio cues for lighting or focus, and no solution to differentiate doc sides throughout add. Moreover, thumb impressions, generally utilized by visually impaired customers, are usually not accepted as legitimate signatures, nor are PAN playing cards issued with them. Aadhaar-based biometric techniques worsen the exclusion. Scanners and interfaces lack fundamental ‘accessibility’ options reminiscent of ‘text-to-speech’ or ‘self-verification’. Because of this, blind candidates are often requested to look in particular person or are rejected on imprecise technical grounds. The RBI’s Grasp Instructions additionally bar any type of ‘prompting’ throughout KYC verification, leaving customers with out help.
How has the SC intervened?
The SC has persistently held that accessibility for PwDs is a ‘constitutional crucial’. In Rajive Raturi versus Union of India (2024), it dominated that ‘accessibility’ is central to the fitting to life, dignity, and freedom of motion below Article 21. Throughout the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the courtroom emphasised that digital registration have to be totally accessible to forestall exclusion. Within the immediate case, the highest courtroom held that ‘digital obstacles’ blatantly violate the rights of PwD below the UNCRPD and India’s incapacity legal guidelines. Anchoring its judgment within the precept of ‘substantive equality’, it directed that digital KYC tips be revised with ‘accessibility’ at their core. It flagged that the digital divide impacts not simply PwDs, however rural customers, senior residents, the economically deprived, and linguistic minorities.
Counting on Articles 14, 15, 21, and 38, the courtroom affirmed that ‘digital entry’ is inseparable from the ‘proper to life and liberty’. It mandated the state to make sure that all digital infrastructure is accessible, particularly for marginalised communities.
Kartikey Singh is a lawyer based mostly in New Delhi.
Printed – Might 16, 2025 08:30 am IST
