Court grants time to UIDAI over Aadhaar data breach
The Delhi High Court on Monday granted more time to Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) to file its response on a plea seeking exemplary damages for the losses caused due to leakage of Aadhaar data. The matter was listed for February 14 for further hearing, by a bench of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Prateek Jalan.
The court was hearing a plea filed by Shamnad Basheer through advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, which alleged that the dissemination of personal information of Aadhaar holders made it clear that the government is responsible for any breach of right to informational privacy.
The petitioner has said his Constitutional rights have been violated due to the negligence of UIDAI.
The petitioner cited the top court’s judgement and said when the state violates the Constitutional rights of a citizen, courts may award compensation.
He also said that his petition is very different from the other proceedings in the Supreme Court as he is seeking claim to damages due to breach of data.
Basheer has also requested the court to appoint an independent committee comprising multiple experts to investigate the scope, extent of breaches and the magnitude of harm caused due to data leak.
He has also sought direction to release information on the number of data breaches which have taken place since the inception of the Aadhaar and the steps taken by the government towards remedying and rectifying their security practices after the breaches.
