Interim stay on Dharani portal extended till tomorrow

Hyderabad: A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy on Tuesday has extended the interim stay directing the officials to restrain from collecting Aadhaar and caste details from the owners of non-agriculture properties till December 10.

The High Court has refused to allow the State government to go ahead with the registration of non-agricultural properties through Dharani portal and said, "Nothing prevents the State government to go ahead with the registrations with the old procedure."

The bench opined that the governments come and go, but the sensitive data such as Aadhaar and caste details collected needs to be protected. There is neither any rule nor mechanism brought by the State government to safeguard the sensitive data and inform the citizens clearly where the citizen has to go if his data is breached or exposed by the government or any third party, the bench added.

Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad informed the court that the State government was taking all precautionary measures to ensure that the massive data pertaining to the owners of non-agriculture and agriculture is safeguarded, but declined to divulge details pertaining to the safety measures taken by the government, and added that such details cannot be made public.

The Advocate General sought a day's time to file the counter affidavit, to which the bench extended the interim stay till December 10 and adjourned the matter.