Kerala to refrain from sending CMO's bulk messages till Monday, govt tells HC

Kochi: The Kerala government on Friday informed the High Court that its earlier undertaking to refrain from sending bulk messages from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) can be extended till Monday.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas recorded the submission of the special government pleader while hearing a petition alleging that the CMO violated the privacy of government employees and members of the judiciary by illegally accessing their mobile phone numbers and email IDs to send bulk messages as part of an election campaign.

During the previous hearing, the court had orally observed that, prima facie, the bulk messaging sent through the WhatsApp Business account of the CMO amounted to an intrusion into privacy. An interim order had granted the state time to satisfy the court that the phone numbers were obtained legally and through proper channels. The court had also recorded the state's undertaking that no similar messages would be sent until then.

When the matter was taken up on Friday, Senior Advocate George Poonthottam moved an interim application seeking to place three additional documents on record. Since the application was not opposed by the state, the court allowed it.

According to the application, one document is a communication issued by the Chief Minister's Officer on Special Duty to the Local Self-Government Department seeking details of registered users of the K-SMART application, including phone numbers, for designing a "Centralised Notification Hub for Government Services".

Another document relates to a similar communication seeking contact details of beneficiaries of the "Sthree Suraksha Padhathi". The third is a 2016 Finance Department order permitting the procurement of Digital Signature Certificates for Drawing and Disbursing Officers.

In an affidavit, the petitioner alleged that even after the filing of the plea, bulk messages were sent to nearly one crore beneficiaries and government employees in the state. The petitioner further contended that the communications indicated possible leakage of data and violation of the Rules of Business.

Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup, appearing for the state, submitted that a counter affidavit would be filed addressing the interim application. He argued that the newly produced documents were unrelated to the present plea, which concerns data from SPARK (Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala).

Posting the matter to Monday, the court orally observed that the state's undertaking would continue till then.
(With LiveLaw inputs)