Hyderabad: A two-judge panel of the Telangana High Court comprising the Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy directed the State government to not to insist upon data which violates the privacy of its citizens pertaining to Dharani portal. The panel was dealing with a public interest writ petition filed by Mora Krishna Reddy and others.

The petitioner complained that though the data being collected from agricultural land owners under the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbook Act of 2020 was secure, the data being collected from non-agricultural land property owners was not under any enabling law passed by the state. The panel pointed out to several patent illegalities in the manner in which data was being collected from its citizens.

The Chief Justice said that the “present scheme of the government does not follow the thresholds of security as required under the Information and Technology Rules, 2011”. He said that the Act of 2020 did not have any provision that dealt with the security of the data being collected.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the present scheme had no backing of the law and was being carried according to the whims and fancies of the government. Advocate General BS Prasad submitted that the objective of the present scheme behind registration of agricultural property details was to ensure that the landowners would be made eligible to avail the Rythu Bandhu Scheme of the government and other social welfare schemes enacted in the future. The AG pointed out that the Dharani portal for registration of non-agricultural property would provide an umbrella for all transfers of property in the future and was being done to ensure good governance.

The panel while directing the state to file a reply within two weeks, ordered them to ensure that data was protected from third parties and that no individual would be forced to either provide their Aadhar card details or their caste details for agricultural or non-agricultural properties.

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