Telangana High Court extends stay on Dharani till December 3

Hyderabad: The High Court division bench on Wednesday extended the stay of Dharani portal till December 3, while permitting the collection of data pertaining to agricultural properties.

The High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy on Wednesday heard a batch of public interest litigations and writ petitions against Dharani portal.

Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad has urged the court to lift the stay on the collection of data in respect of non-agricultural properties across the State so that registrations could be commenced.

The Chief Justice pointed out that the State government cannot compel a citizen of the State to register property details on Dharani portal. "Can there be an element of compulsion? In case, a person does not register on Dharani portal, can he be barred from transferring his property to others either by sale or etc and will he lose his right over his property? This will be in sheer violation of Article 300 (A) of the Constitution of India," CJ stated.

The bench wanted to know what would happen to the Right to Privacy of the details so far collected by the State if this massive data was breached by even 0.1 per cent.

Advocate General BS Prasad informed the bench that in rural areas 97.58 per cent properties have been uploaded i.e 59.21 lakh agricultural properties have been registered in different gram panchayats. In GHMC, out of 16.62 lakh property owners, 2.99 lakh property owners details have been uploaded and 14 lakh odd are yet to register their details.

"What is the procedure adopted by the State to safeguard the privacy of a person? Why hasn't the State government come out with a GO rather come out in the media and make a statement that there will be no adverse remarks against people who do not upload their properties details on Dharani portal, because in the press, the government says that, anyone who does not register his property details on Dharani will not be able to sell an inch of his land or property, which is a violation of Law? Due to such statements of the government, there is an impression in the minds of the people that their right to their properties will be barred. Such statement tantamounts the law," the CJ opined.

The Court wanted to know why the State government was not bringing any safeguards on paper and assure people that the data uploaded on Dharani portal would not be breached. "When hackers sitting in Philippines can breach data of White House, Buckingham Palace, Pentagon and so, why can't they breach this data?" the Chief Justice pointed out.

The Court declined to accept the contentions of the Advocate General that sufficient firewalls have been built and the entire State technological department was monitoring the updation of the data, and the revenue officials were playing a pivotal part under the supervision of the Chief Secretary, and the apprehension of the petitioners that their right to property would be barred was a misconception.

The Court observed that none of the parties was challenging the intention of the government but they were asking that this system of collection of data should be streamlined, fast-tracked and backed by the legislation.

"In fact, we are happy that the government is doing this work and we are also aware that other States are approaching the State government to divulge this programme details to them so that they can emulate. The only concern of this Court is that the data of the citizens collected should be safeguarded," the CJ stated.

The High Court extended the stay and adjourned the matter to December 3.