HYDERABAD: In a setback to the Telangana government, the high court on Tuesday directed it to stop collecting and uploading any data pertaining to non-agricultural properties of individuals into its Dharani land portal .
The court also said the government cannot insist that people furnish details of Aadhaar, caste, family members, etc., for agricultural properties. “The Supreme Court has already
made it clear that the authorities cannot collect the details of Aadhaar, caste, etc. Even an Aadhaar Act will not enable the state to do so,” it said.
It further directed the state government not to share with third parties, details of one crore people whose property details have already been uploaded into Dharani, the portal which was launched to maintain a digital record of owners of agricultural and non-agricultural property holders in the state.
HC seeks detailed counter from govt
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy gave this interim direction while hearing two separate PILs filed by advocates — Gopal Sharma and Saketh Kasibhatla — and a writ petition filed by K Anand Kumar challenging the legal validity of Dharani exercise and also collection of personal details such as Aadhaar, caste, family members of the property owners. The judges sought a detailed counter within two weeks from the government on what safety mechanisms it has put in place for data collected for Dharani and safeguards against its misuse. “Tell us who is the competent authority that will have access to this data base and how he will handle it,” the bench told advocate general BS Prasad before posting the case to November 20.
Talking tough, the CJ said: “The chief secretary was burning the midnight oil when the state website was recently hacked and was unable to set it right for a long time. Given this background, how would you (government) drive home confidence in the minds of people about the safety of their data.”
After hearing arguments of senior counsel D Prakash Reddy and two other advocates — K Vivek Reddy and S Suman — who contended that the government was doing this exercise without any backing of a specified law, the judges said the government had enacted no law to support its action in respect of uploading details of owners of non-agricultural properties.
The judges said in respect of uploading the ownership particulars of agricultural land, the government brought out a law — Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act 2020 — but this would not empower it to collect details of Aadhaar and caste. “To add to the confusion, there are four different Dharani Apps on Google Play Store. Nobody knows which is authentic,” they said.