New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices on a fresh petition challenging the National Population Register (NPR) as violative of a citizen’s fundamental right to privacy, and also the parent act which provides for dual citizenship. The NPR exercise gets underway from April 1 this year and will continue till September 30, 2020. This exercise has been challenged in a petition by some farmers, including Udgar Ram.
Notices on the petition were issued by a bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and including Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued for the petitioner along with advocate MR Shamshad.
The petition challenges Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 2004, on the ground that it is intended to grant dual citizenship, which is currently not permitted. The government is considering upgrading the NPR under the rules framed under this Act, it alleges. The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and the Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, cannot be used to upgrade the NPR, the petitioners have claimed.
“The entire exercise is a gross invasion into the privacy of persons residing in India. The exercise of updating the NPR for the stated object of grant of dual citizenship is manifestly arbitrary, apart from having no rational nexus (with the object),” the petition says. Quoting an earlier court ruling, it says that citizens must be allowed freedom, a cherished constitutional value, unless they have acted in an unlawful manner.
Under these rules, the state invades the privacy of private citizens without first establishing that they were acting in an unlawful manner, the petition charges. “There is no probable cause for the state to enquire into the personal details of a private citizen unless an investigation reveals that they entire population has acted in an unlawful manner.” The NPR, the petition alleges, is being carried out under the guise of carrying out the census. The census is mandatory, but it protects all the information collected under the exercise, it says, adding that the NPR, on the other hand, is not mandatory, nor does it accord any protection granted to the information collected during the exercise.
The collection of such information without the necessary safeguards may lead to “possible unsanctioned state surveillance of private citizens who have not engaged in unlawful activity. No provision nor responsibility has been fixed in the case of unauthorised access of the data by third parties,” it says.
Source: Economic Times
