NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked a petitioner to give a representation to the central government on his plea seeking to ensure that travel companies collecting personal data of travellers such as name and Aadhaar and passport details while booking tickets are kept confidential.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) and asked the petitioner to approach the Centre by way of the representation. The court also asked Centre to decide the representation expeditiously by passing a reasoned order.
“The petition is disposed of with a liberty to the petitioner to raise the grievance with the Union of India. If a representation is filed, the same be decided by way of a reasoned order in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible,” the bench said. The high court noted that petitioner and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has not given any representation to the central government before filing the petition.
Naming a few of the companies, the petitioner said they are running their operations in India and are partially or fully owned by Chinese investors, and there is an apprehension of potential misuse of citizens’ data. It said foreign travel companies not only collect data of common people but also of lawmakers, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, defence personnel, civil servants and their family members.
The plea sought a direction from the court to take steps to ensure that travel companies which collect personal data like name, address, phone number, and Aadhaar and passport details of travellers while booking tickets are kept confidential and not shared with anyone.