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Aadhaar eSign — a digital signature, not just an electronic one

What Aadhaar eSign is, when it's worth using, and what SignSpry does and doesn't see.

Most signatures in SignSpry are electronic signatures: the signer draws or types a mark, and the audit trail plus our platform seal proves who did it, from where, and that nothing changed afterwards. That is valid under section 10A of the Information Technology Act 2000 and is enough for the great majority of commercial documents.

Aadhaar eSign is a step up. The signer authenticates against UIDAI with an OTP sent to the mobile number linked to their Aadhaar, and a licensed Certifying Authority issues them a one-time certificate in their own name. What lands in your document is a cryptographic signature bound to a verified identity — a digital signature under section 3A of the IT Act.

When it's worth it

Use Aadhaar eSign when the identity of the signer is the thing that might be challenged: loan and lending documents, insurance proposals, high-value agreements, anything a regulator or a bank will look at. For an NDA with a supplier you already know, an ordinary electronic signature is usually fine.

Each Aadhaar signature costs money — the licensed provider charges per signature — so it is offered per signer, not forced on everyone.

What we send, and what we never see

This is the part worth understanding, because it is better than most people expect.

When a signer chooses Aadhaar, SignSpry works out exactly which bytes of the document they are about to sign and calculates a SHA-256 fingerprint of them — 64 characters. That fingerprint, and nothing else, goes to the signing service.

  • The document never leaves this server.
  • We never see, ask for, or store an Aadhaar number.
  • We never see the OTP. It is entered on the provider's own page.

What comes back is a signature over that fingerprint, plus the certificate naming the signer. We keep the certificate and the transaction id, because the audit trail needs them. That is the limit of what we hold.

What the signer does

  1. They fill in their fields as usual and tick the consent box.
  2. They press Sign with Aadhaar instead of Finish.
  3. They land on the provider's page, enter their Aadhaar number and the OTP sent

to their registered mobile.

  1. They come straight back, signed.

If the OTP is wrong, or they cancel, or the number has no mobile linked to it — nothing in your envelope changes. They can try again, or finish the ordinary way.

Before you can offer it

Aadhaar eSign needs a contract with one of the seven organisations licensed to provide it. See Setting up Aadhaar eSign for what that involves, and Choosing an eSign Service Provider for who they are.

Aadhaar eSign is not valid for every document. Wills, negotiable instruments, powers of attorney, trust deeds and conveyances of immovable property are excluded by the IT Act itself. See What you cannot sign electronically.
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