Kochi : The High Court on Friday dismissed plea seeking scrapping of state govt decision to engage Sprinklr services for collecting data on Covid-19. The court does not wish to respond to allegations raised in the petition, it said in the interim order.
The focus is is that there should happen no breaches in protecting secrecy of data collected, the court said adding that, Covid-19 be not followed by a data epidemic at later point. The court shall make no interference at this stage lest it be interpreted as impeding Covid relief efforts, said the Division Bench comprising Justices J Devan Ramachandran and JTR Ravi.
While transferring health data to Sprinkr, the identities of individuals to whom the data pertain should not be given away, the court said in its order. Sprinklr, on its part, shall not conduct any activity that would breach secrecy of data it receives from the state govt for assessment purposes. Also, the company shall not proclaim that it has data from Kerala on its hands. And, Sprinklr should erase all data once the task is complete. The company shall not use the Kerala state symbol for any kind of propaganda. While collecting data, the subjects should be informed that it would be utilised by Sprinklr. Also, due consent should be obtained, the court said in its order.
The state in its counter cited that there has been absolutely no data leak in the process . All data lies safe in govt hands however, internal audit was carried out only after 4 April, it said. Also, a few lapses in the agreement pointed out by the Centre have been plugged, govt informed the court.
The court today was hearing the Public Interest Litigation(PIL) filed by Advocate Balu Gopalakrishnan scheduled Thursday. It was adjourned, waiting for govt response to the litigation. The govt counter cited how it entered into the agreement with Sprinklr under emergency conditions.
Cyber Law expert Advocate NS Napinai joined the court proceedings from Mumbai today, on behalf of Kerala govt. The court sought some clarification from the expert. The contract between the state and Sprinkler runs for 6 months, beyond which there would be no need for the company to retain the data. The data is being stored at Central govt approved facility and there is no cause for anxiety on that aspect, the lawyer said.
The court then sought his view on the option of having engaged a central govt agency for the purpose. That would consume considerable time and the situation warranted quick action, Napinai told the court. The case will he heard again after 3 weeks.
Two days back, even as the case was being scheduled for Friday, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and BJP state president K Surendran filed pleas seeking cancellation of state’s Sprinklr agreement. This was followed by a few pleas of identical nature. A petition filed by Thalassery native Siddharth Shashidharan claimed, while emergency measures undertaken by the state govt was effective in curbing the pandemic, India has no laws that ensures data protection.
