CMO bulk messaging row: HC rules out illegality & privacy breach

The High Court on Tuesday disposed of the petition against the misuse of personal data of government staff for bulk messaging purposes, saying that it was done with a legitimate intention. Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas, who considered the petition, found no case of privacy violation.

Advocate George Poonthottam, who appeared for the petitioners, told Onmanorama that while the HC ruled out the illegality in the process, it also observed that messages should not have been sent from the office of the Chief Minister and that it should be done by appropriate government bodies. A detailed order will be issued later.

The petitioners had mainly questioned the use of the photograph of the Kerala Chief Minister in the messages sent to the employees of the state government. During the hearing, the Advocate General, said that the messages were sent by the Kerala State IT mission using the centre ID of the CMO and that there was nothing illegal about it. He also informed the court about a two-step authentication process to access the platform before sending the messages.

The state government came in for severe flak from the opposition parties after the petition was filed. It was alleged that the government accessed the data of the government employees from the salary portal and misused it to trumpet the achievements of the government as a pre-poll strategy.

The petition was filed by Rasheed Ahammed, Associate Professor, KTM College, Malappuram and Anil Kumar K M, clerical assistant, Government Secretariat. The petitioners alleged that personal information, including phone numbers, was collected and used without permission, in clear breach of privacy norms.

They cited that personal data submitted for official government projects cannot be used for political promotion, and that transferring data from platforms such as SPARK to the CM's office, if done, constitutes a serious violation of privacy.