No deadline to feed non-agricultural asset data into Dharani portal: Telangana government to HC

HYDERABAD: A division bench of Telangana High Court on Wednesday recorded the statement of State Advocate General BS Prasad that at present there is no time frame or deadline to upload the data of non-agricultural properties on Dharani portal.

The bench directed the State government to file counter affidavit in the PIL filed challenging its decision for entry of non-agricultural properties and personal information such as caste and other details of the citizens (owners) on Dharani platform. 

The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, passed this order in the PIL filed by advocate Gopal Sharma with a plea to restrain the State government from continuing with the ongoing State-wide survey to gather information of the non-agricultural properties and various personal details of their owners.

Senior counsel D Prakash Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, told the court that there is no security to the information being collected from the citizens and uploaded on the website. 

Details pertaining to Aadhaar card, caste and non-agricultural properties are sought from the citizens and it will kept in the public domain which can be accessed by anyone. In fact, the government’s decision is not backed either by an executive instruction signed by the State Governor nor by a statute.

In general, people do not evince interest in sharing information pertaining to their caste. He added that the government has ordered its staff to complete the data feeding work within 15 days.

Replying to a query from the bench, Advocate General Prasad informed the court that as of now there is no time frame or deadline to obtain and feed the data into Dharani portal. He said that the government has taken all necessary steps to protect the data of the citizens.

After recording the AG's statement, the bench issued notices to the respondents -- State chief secretary, special chief secretary to Registration and Stamps Department, principal secretary to Municipal Administration and other authorities concerned for filing counter affidavit on the issues raised by the petitioner and posted the matter to November 3 for further hearing.