SIM cards cannot be issued to minors anymore as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Saturday informed that from now on, any person under the age of 18 cannot purchase SIM cards from any of the telecom operators in the country.

Selling sim cards to a minor or an ineligible person will now be considered as illegal activity, it said.

In order to acquire a sim card, a person has to fill a Customer Acquisition Form (CAF), which is basically a contract between a customer and the telecom service provider (TSP). 

The contract is governed by the Indian Contract Law, 1872, which states that the person making the contract should be at least 18 years of age or 21 years in case the court has appointed him/her a legal guardian. The person making the contract should also be of sound mind. If not, the contract is not valid in the eyes of the court.

Since it is a contract between the TSP and the customer, only eligible adults can make the contract, DoT said.

It is to be noted that one can purchase a maximum of 18 SIM cards in his/her name. Nine of them can be used for mobile calls and other nine for M2M communication.