Forced to enrol on DigiYatra at airports? Scindia clarifies in letter to TMC MP

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has clarified that enrollment of passengers on DigiYatra is completely voluntary and that obtaining their consent is a prerequisite for capturing face biometrics during kiosk-based registration.

TMC MP Saket Gokhale had raised concerns over the instances where passengers were reportedly enrolled without their explicit consent. Gokhale, in a letter to Scindia earlier this month, flagged several complaints from flyers that they were being forced at airports across India to sign up for DigiYatra and that their biometrics were being sneakily taken without their consent.

Scindia, in his response, emphasised that DigiYatra is designed as a voluntary and seamless process for air travel, providing a hassle-free experience. He highlighted that the system primarily relies on a mobile app, where all data is stored on the passenger's device.

“To facilitate passengers not having app installed but intend to use Digiyatra, kiosk based registration only for the day of travel is provided by airports,” Scindia said.

“To support passengers, airports also provide service of Digi buddies. Consent of passenger is pre-requisite for taking face biometric on kiosk based registration,” he added.

The minister assured that the data collected through this process is automatically purged from the airport system within 24 hours of the flight's departure.

“The issue raised by you has been examined and airport operators have been advised to sensitise Digi buddies on consent taking process and keeping use of digi yatra completely voluntary,” he said.

Sharing a copy of the letter on X, Gokhale called it a “welcome step” and asked passengers to contact him of they continue to face the issue.

DigiYatra provides for contactless, seamless movement of passengers at various check points at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).

For availing the service, a passenger has to register his or her details on DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self image capture. In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned and the credentials are shared with the airport.

At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar-coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger's identity and travel document. Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.

The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear the security and board the aircraft.