Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 13 (UNI) The Kerala Government has infringed upon the right to privacy of the citizen as enshrined in Article-21 of Indian constitution by allowing the police to collect Call Detail Records (CDR) of individuals infected by COVID-19, Opposition leader in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala alleged here on Thursday.
"By allowing the police to collect CDRs, the Kerala government has blatantly violated the verdicts of Supreme Court of India protecting Right to Privacy, and provisions of Indian Telegraph Act (IT Act) which permits collecting CDR only in very serious criminal cases. Is pandemic a crime? Or the infected criminals? The CDRs of Covid patients cannot be collected. The LDF government is trying to convert Kerala to a surveillance state,' he said in a press conference here.
"The order of the DGP empowering the police to collect CDRs is unlikely to stand judicial scrutiny, and the government should rescind the order immediately. The government also needs to punish befittingly those who overreached their authority by issuing the irresponsible order. The telecom companies need not handover CDRs to police when they demand, as the police has no right to make such demands,' Mr Chennithala added.