Citizens’ group questions privacy panel composition

The signatories are part of an initiative by Rethink Aadhaar.

An important part of the government’s arguments about Aadhaar in the course of hearings in the Supreme Court has been the Data Privacy Committee, set up in August under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) B N Srikrishna to work towards a law on data privacy. It was notified in July, during the course of the hearings on privacy before the five-judge Constitution bench.

Now, 22 eminent citizens, including a former Chief Justice of a high court, a former Chief Information Commissioner, senior advocates, a former Governor, former Vice-Chancellors and petitioners in the privacy matter have written to the committee, expressing their discomfiture at the composition of the committee. They want it to be more broad-based.

“Most members on the current committee have in the past voiced or echoed views that seem to support Aadhaar, the brand created by the UIDAI. Some have even taken stands in the Supreme Court to challenge the fundamental right to privacy. A committee created to look at a fundamental issue which will impact this country needs to be balanced and cannot be biased towards one position, particularly when there might be conflicts of interest.”

The committee, set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to deliberate on a Data Protection Framework, has on board ten members, including the chairman, UIDAI, other government officials and others with known and stated positions on the matter.

The signatories have called for more transparency in the functioning of the ministry and said: “We would like to put forth the suggestion that all meeting notes may be made available to citizens, and submissions by members be pro-actively disclosed, as the deliberations proceed. We strongly urge that all documents referred to by the committee in their deliberations be shared publicly, and contemporaneously, to enable meaningful engagement with the work of the committee.” The signatories said more information activists should be kept in the loop and made part of the committee.

The signatories are part of an initiative by Rethink Aadhaar and include ex-Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, A P Shah, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, privacy petitioners Maj Gen (retd) S G Vombatkere Prof Anupam Saraph and Aruna Roy, senior advocates Prashant Bhushan and Indira Jaising, former Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, professors Tarlochan Sastry and Jagdeep Chokkhar of the Association for Democratic Reforms, among several others.