HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday gave the green signal to the Telangana government for conducting the Intensive Household Survey (IHS) in the State on August 19 after recording its statement that “it is voluntary.”
Refusing to stay the survey, Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar said, “The question of infringement of right to privacy of any citizen does not arise as the government has clarified that disclosure of information is only on voluntary basis.”
The verdict came on writ petitions filed by Seetha Lakshmi, an advocate, and Rajasekhar Tulasi, a resident of the city, challenging the State government’s decision to hold the IHS. During the hearing, Telangana Advocate-General K Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that the purpose of IHS was to collect accurate data for better implementation of socio-economic programmes of the government. “The newly-formed government has decided to conduct the survey in public interest,” he stressed.
He argued that the government was well within its powers to conduct the survey to check if its welfare schemes were being implemented properly. “The money meant for the welfare of the weaker sections is being swindled and the government wants to ascertain facts,” he said and alleged that a malicious propaganda, unleashed against the survey, was led by middlemen who have benefitted from the misuse of schemes. The AG further said the proposed survey was meant to extend welfare schemes to the downtrodden in the State and weed out bogus white ration cards. He clarified, “Citizens are free to give or decline information to the enumerators. No person will be pressurized to participate in the proposed survey.” He recalled that previous governments in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh had also conducted similar surveys.
Senior counsel R Raghunandan Rao, appearing for the petitioners, said seeking information pertaining to bank accounts and income tax was nothing but invasion of privacy. “If citizens divulge personal information, there is every possibility of such information finding its way into public domain,” he feared.
He contended that Parliament had already enacted the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 and the Collection of Statistics Rules, 2011 and as per the Act, a nodal officer has to be appointed before a survey.
He explained that whenever any department in a State government wishes to collect statistics, it would be required to first consult the nodal officer and after such consultation, a notification has to be issued with a gap of at least 15 days between the notification and the communication of advice. “In the present case, no notification has been issued till today,” he pointed out.
Reacting to the submissions, the judge asked the AG whether it was mandatory to disclose details of bank accounts and income tax particulars in the survey. The AG replied it was purely voluntary. The judge dismissed the interim applications of the petitioners after recording the statement of the AG. The judge, in his order, said, “As the AG stated that the disclosure of information is only on voluntary basis and there is no compulsion.. as such, the question of infringement of rights to privacy of any citizen does not arise.” The judge also said, “In my view, the primary contentions of the petitioner are prima facie not satisfied.” While admitting the main petition, the judge issued a notice to the government for filing of a counter affidavit.