Dharani: Telangana High Court issues notice to government for seeking personal details from property owners

Hyderabad: The High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State government on seeking personal information like caste and Aadhaar numbers for people submitting property details on Dharani portal.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Gopal Sharma which alleged that the Dharani portal is seeking citizen's personal information such as caste and Aadhaar number.

The CJ bench expressed that nowadays caste is a pride for everyone since everyone wants to take maximum advantage of caste.

The PIL argued that taking personal details of citizens such as caste, Aadhar details in Dharani portal is illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and vague.

Counsel for the petitioner Desai Prakash Reddy informed the Court that except for a publication in the daily newspapers, the above decision of the Telangana State government is not backed by the statute, rules or regulations. It is only an oral instruction to the people of the State to part with their personal as well as their property details in Dharani portal.

Moreover, petitioner argued that the State government intends to keep the information pertaining to its citizen's property and personal details on the website, where there is no security for such information which will be kept in public domain, which can be accessed by anyone and the decision of the State Government is not even backed by an executive instruction under the signature of the Governor nor it is backed by the statute.

Chief Justice RS Chauhan, while declining to accept the contentions of petitioner counsel observed that "what is wrong, if the information on your caste is asked. Right from the time you get into Kindergarten, your caste details are asked and entered in your record. The government says it will protect your personal details and ensure that it will not be accessed by others.

Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad informed the bench that there is no deadline for submission of uploading of the information in Dharani portal.

The Government of India has come out with a similar scheme Swamitva. Though the scheme pertaining to the rural areas properties, it has legal backing, AG submitted.

The High Court issued notices to the State government directing to file their reply to the contentions raised by the petitioner till November 2 and the matter adjourned to November 3.

Another PIL in HC against LRS

The High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy heard public interest litigation filed by P. Sreedhar Reddy, advocate, seeking to declare the Telangana Regularization Scheme of unapproved and illegal layout rules 2020 issued vide GO Ms No. 131 dated August 31 as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and violative of provisions of the Telangana Areas Development Act, 1975.

The Chief Justice bench issued notices to Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary Panchayat Raj, Municipal Administration and Commissioner HMDA, directing them to file their response to the contentions raised by the petitioner.

The Bench directed adjourned the matter to November 5.