NPR Would Mean Surveillance State, Says Plea In SC

A plea in the Supreme Court has stated that data collected under the amended citizenship law and the process to update National Population Register (NPR) “may lead to possible unsanctioned state surveillance of private citizens who have not engaged in unlawful activity”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, comprising Justice B R Gavai and Justice Surya Kant has issued notice to the central government in response to this plea, which has also challenged rules notified in 2003 for registration of citizens and issuance of National Identity Cards.

“The entire exercise of creation and updation of the NPR is gross invasion of the privacy of private citizens. The nature of the exercise is manifestly arbitrary with no grounds being specified apart from no guarantee of protection and security of the data/information so collected. Such database would erode basic freedom that the person within India currently enjoys,” stated the plea filed by Udagar Ram, Bimalesh Kumar Yadav and Sanjay Safi.

The plea has claimed that the process to update the NPR and census are entirely different exercises. The plea has contended that the exercise to update the NPR assumes that all the persons residing within the territory of India are not citizens of India and shifts the onus to the person to disclose information to prove their citizenship.

The plea also challenged the vires of Section 14-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. “In terms of Section 15 of the Census Act, the records of the Census are not open to inspection or admissible in evidence. As such, the collection of such information which does not enjoy the same security as the Census Act, is manifestly arbitrary,” the plea stated.

The petition has urged the Supreme Court to pass a direction to declare Section 14-A the Citizenship Act, 1955 as unconstitutional and null and void and ultra vires Article 9, Article 14, and Article 21A of the Constitution of India.