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The Commission accepting the matter as related to right to privacy which is an essence of right to life and liberty deemed it fit to provide an opportunity of early hearing to the complainant and accordingly the hearing was fixed on priority basis.
The complainant in his complaint to the Commission mentioned that there was no reply given by the CPIO, National E-Governance Division, MeitY and CPIO, MeitY.
He further submitted that he filed this RTI application seeking to get information about the process of creation of Aarogya Setu App and other information relating to its creation. He further clarified that the present RTI also contains a few points which were also asked to the NIC vide RTI with reg. no. NICHQ/R/E/20/00283 dt. 01/08/2020. It was noted by the Commission that the referred RTI was adjudicated by the Commission in case no. CIC/NICHQ/C/2020/685079 on 22.10.2020.
The complainant further submitted that the information was anyway not provided by the NIC in that case since it stated that it "does not hold the information" relating to the App's creation, which is very surprising since it is the App's developer. Now MeitY also has not provided any information relating to the App's creation and other matters.
He strongly pleaded that in effect, no one has any information on how this App was created, the files relating to its creation, who has given inputs for this App's creation, what audit measures exists to check for misuse of the personal data of millions of Indians, whether any anonymisation protocols for user data have been developed and about who this data is being shared with. This is despite the fact that any omissions and commissions by these public authorities and any failure to perform their duties as outlined and mandated under the Protocol, 2020, could essentially lead to security compromise of millions of Indians' personal and user data. This would be a grave breach of fundamental right to privacy on a massive scale and threaten people's constitutionally guaranteed right to life and liberty.
Shri D K Sagar Deputy Director and CPIO, Department of Electronics submitted that a timely reply was given to the applicant on 07.08.2020 informing him that the RTI application has been transferred to the PIO, NeGD u/s 6(3) of the RTI Act. Shri R A Dhawan, Senior General Manager (HR & Admn) and CPIO NeGD submitted a copy of the reply dated 02.10.2020 in which he stated that the information sought in the RTI does not relate to NeGD. Accordingly, NeGD do not have any information on the above. He could not explain why it took him almost two months to provide a reply and that too informing that the information sought is not related to NeGD. Shri S.K Tyagi, Deputy Director and CPIO, MeitY was also present during the hearing and hence he was asked as to from where the information relating to the creation of Arogya Setu app can be accessed. He also could not gave a plausible explanation except that the creation of the same involves inputs from NITI Ayog. He further could not explain as to how it is possible that the App was created and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has no clue about its origin. The Commission took note of the fact that on the same day two more complaints were also decided and the CPIO, from NIC was present in those cases but the CPIO NIC had also transferred those RTIs to different public authorities to obtain information of similar nature. Apparently, the CPIO, MeitY and all concerned CPIOs present during the hearing have provided a very evasive kind of reply as well as submissions and not even attempted to trace the holder of the information in this case. Moreover, the applicant has rightly pointed out that the App is being used by masses at large and can have wide reaching effects and breach of privacy cannot be ruled out completely. This Commission would not get into the right to privacy aspects as the technical details of the App and the regulatory mechanism has not yet been examined by any competent Court of Law.
Furthermore, as per the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ it is mentioned that the content is owned, updated and maintained by the MyGov, MeitY. Therefore, Shri Tyagi is directed to explain in writing who is the concerned CPIO to explain regarding MyGov, MeiTY maintaining the app. The CPIO NIC also should explain that when in the website it is mentioned that Aarogya Setu Platform is designed, developed and hosted by National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, then how is it that they do not have any information about creation of the App.