The Karnataka High Court in the case Mathew Thomas v. Union of India & ANR observed and has permitted a petitioner to withdraw a public interest litigation, wherein seeking quashing of three contracts entered into by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) with foreign companies.
The bench comprising of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Ashok S Kinagi observed while disposing of the plea filled by one named Mathews Thomas, stated that the learned counsel appearing along with the counsel on record prays for withdrawal of the petition with liberty for availing appropriate legal remedies which includes approaching the Hon’ble Apex Court.
The petition filled argued that the UIDAI by entering the Contract with foreign private companies has not only has allowed them “access to all data” “but the same is also authorised to use, transferring, storing, process, and link to any individual. Thus, the fundamental rights of Indian Citizens are not only violated by the contractors but they also pose a serious threat to national security
It was stated by the petitioner, Thomas in the petition that he was a petitioner before the Supreme Court in case of Justice Puttaswamy but the facts regarding the private contracts were “ it was not notice by the Hon’ble Supreme Court or
either it has not been brought up to the attention of the apex court.
It was stated as per the plea filled that on August 24 in 2010, the UIDAI entered contracts with three companies, in which two are foreign firms and the thirdly contractor is a collaboration between an Indian and a foreign company. Hence, these Contractors are called Biometric Solution Providers.
Further, it was submitted by the Thomas in the plea that citizens of India have been “made to think” that the government is collecting the databases in its own capacity. In real, the private agency is operating in the guise of government bodies and are siphoning away the valuable information which could very well leading to a major security threat to our nation.
The petition stated M/s. L1 Identity Solutions Operating Company Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Accenture are originally US companies. These companies are still being the contractors to US Defence and Homeland Security departments and to US intelligence agencies. M/s. L1 Identity Solutions Operating Company Pvt. Ltd which was originally being registered in Delaware, US, has been sold to a French Defence company and latterly sold to a group of private equity investors. Presently, it is named as IDEMIA.
The petitioner stated that the third collaboration being a collaboration between an Indian company, M/s. Satyam Computer Services Ltd., and MorphoSafran, which is a French Defence contractor
The petition prayed for striking down of UIDAI’s three contracts with the foreign private companies and seeking measures for ensuring that the data is not used for tracking of citizens.
