Supreme Court Tells MeitY To Look Into Stolen Indian Data Sitting On Foreign Servers

A PIL flagged data stolen across five countries being used to extort Indians. The Supreme Court heard it, acknowledged it was serious, and sent it straight to MeitY.

A PIL flagged data stolen across five countries being used to extort Indians.

Source : ABPLIVE AI

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Supreme Court directs government to consider data protection plea.
• PIL seeks stronger mechanism for citizen data recovery abroad.
• Court deems data theft issue technical, refers to ministry.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to treat a public interest litigation as a formal representation, seeking a stronger mechanism to recover or destroy personal data of Indian citizens allegedly stolen and held on servers abroad. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi was hearing the PIL filed by Nitish Kumar, a cyber security consultant. 

The court declined to entertain the petition directly, with the CJI noting it was largely a technical matter and directing the petitioner to take his concerns to the government instead.

What Did The PIL Ask For And Why Did The Court Step Back?

The petition sought the court's intervention to operationalise the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, and to address the rise of "digital arrests" and extortion linked to data breaches. 

Kumar submitted that data stolen by entities in at least five foreign countries is being used against Indian citizens, with sensitive information such as fingerprints and personal identifiers being exploited to carry out transnational crimes. 

While the bench acknowledged the seriousness of the concerns, it observed that the issues were "highly technical" and required administrative and technological expertise rather than judicial intervention at this stage.

"The issue being highly technical in nature, it seems to us that an effective course will be to approach the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Let this plea be given as a supplementary representation. They shall consider it," the bench said.

What Happens Next With The Data Protection Petition?

The plea had also sought the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor data theft investigations and called on the Centre to recover or destroy stolen personal data from foreign jurisdictions. 

On the question of bringing accused parties to justice, the bench noted: "Unless there's an extradition treaty," the accused cannot be brought here to face the law. Disposing of the plea, the court granted Kumar the liberty to submit the petition as a supplementary representation to MeitY.

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