KOCHI: Kerala opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Monday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the state police chief not to collect call detail records (CDRs) of COVID-19 patients from any service providers.
In his petition, Chennithala contended that the state government's action is unconstitutional.
The government had granted permission to the state police to collect CDRs of COVID-19 patients for contact tracing to arrest the spread of the viral disease in the state. The Kerala police are using the contact tracing strategy to determine how many people came in contact with COVID-19 patients and whether these people are showing any symptoms of the disease.
The petition stated that the move of the police is against the guidelines issued by the Centre and the interim order issued by the Kerala High Court in the Sprinklr case.
He submitted that CDRs are a private matter of an individual under law and are liable to be protected from unauthorized access by any authority or third party. If the security of CDRs is breached, individuals whose details were inappropriately accessed or used for gain by a third party will face a number of potential risks.
The collection of data under the pretext of tracking their movements as preventive measures amounted to an infraction of the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, said the petition.
CDRs can be collected in connection with the investigation of criminal cases of a grave nature involving threats to national security, financial crimes and other similar crimes only after obtaining permission from Home Department subject to review by the review committee constituted under Rule 16 of the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, stated in the petition.