Aadhaar social hub: Attorney general K K Venugopal asked to reply to PIL

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the attorney general K.K. Venugopal to file a response to a PIL challenging the alleged move by Aadhaar authorities to engage the services of a private agency to monitor activities of citizens on the social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, GooglePlus etc. The petition filed by Trinamool Congress MLA from Bengal Mahua Moitra has urged the court to quash the impugned “Request for Proposal” issued on July 18, as being violative of Articles 14 (equality), 19(1)(a)(freedom of speech) and 21(life, liberty and privacy) of the Consti-tution.

Senior advocate Abhishekh Manu Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, told a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud that the matter was serious as the issue involved the fundamental right of privacy, which is sought to be infringed upon by the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI).  He submitted a brief note giving suggestions to allay the apprehensions and fears and wanted the government to respond.

The AG told the bench, “I am willing to put in an affidavit accommodating the suggestions given by the petitioner.”  Taking on record AG’s submissions, the bench directed the matter to be listed next week. According to the petition the RFP issued by the UIDAI proposes to appoint a private agency to act as Social Media Agency for the Aadhaar authorities and assign the proposed agency the task of employing a “Social Listening Tool to monitor social media platforms”.

The RFP has been issued by UIDAI calling upon interested parties to submit their bids/proposals for selection to act as the Social Media Agency of UIDAI.  It was argued that RFP violates her fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14,19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution, in  as much as, the same aims to mount surveillance on social media platforms.