KOCHI: The state government has assured the Kerala High Court that an IT expert will appear before the court on Thursday to explain the technical aspects of sending bulk messages from the Chief Minister’s Office. The submission was made when a petition filed by Rasheed Ahammed, Associate Professor of a college in Kollam, and Anil Kumar KM, Clerical Assistant in the General Administration Department, Thiruvananthapuram, came up for hearing.
The court also directed the petitioners to file an objection statement, if any, in response to the state government’s plea seeking permission to send bulk messages expressing gratitude to those who contributed to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund for the rehabilitation of Wayanad landslide victims.
During the hearing of the petition challenging the bulk messages, Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup submitted that there was nothing illegal in sending the messages and that the state is the custodian of the data. The court asked the government, “When you mine certain data, that data may include the mobile phone numbers of individuals who may be your employees, and you send them messages.
Today it may be one message; tomorrow it could be another. Do you have the authority to mine such data and send these messages?”
In response, the government stated that the state can mine data that is provided for specific purposes.
With regard to sending messages to donors of the CMDRF, counsel for the petitioners objected, stating that employees who donated to the fund had already received acknowledgement receipts. The court will consider the case on Thursday.