E-Paper
Kerala CMO took employee data for campaign, says plea
A Kerala petition claims the Chief Minister's Office misused government employee data for election campaigns, violating privacy rights.
A petition has been filed in the Kerala high court claiming that the chief minister’s office (CMO) accessed personal information of government employees, including their mobile numbers and e-mail IDs, from the official e-governance portal for a bulk messaging campaign to highlight the achievements of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
The plea has been filed by an official of the department of general administration of the state government along with an associate professor of KTM College in Malappuram.
It is alleged that the CMO violated all norms of data protection by collecting data from the Service Pay Roll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) portal and other similar government portals and using them to send bulk messages through WhatsApp as part of an election campaign. The messages have reportedly been sent to mobile numbers of government employees and beneficiaries of various state government schemes and pensions.
“...the entire data has been transmitted to the office of the chief minister through the Kerala IT Mission, yet another body under the control of the Government for compiling on behalf of the Chief Minister who is a representative of the political party facing the next hustings due in March - April 2026...messages are widely circulated in the personal WhatsApp accounts of government employees and other citizens, aiming at an election campaign in order to influence the public opinion ahead of the polls,” the plea stated.
The petitioners claimed the action of accessing and using the data violates right to privacy protected under Article 21 of the Constitution and provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. They prayed the court for restraining the office of the CM in accessing the data and compensate them monetarily.
Opposition alleged the state government of misusing government portal for elections. Leader of the opposition VD Satheesan said, “There are rulings of the high court and other courts against data theft. No one’s personal information should be released without their permission. It appears that the social media wing of the CM’s office stole data from SPARK portal.”
He called for the police to register a case and initiate a probe. He also said the opposition will legally challenge the alleged accessing of personal data of government employees.
It is not clear if the current plea filed in the HC has been on the behalf of the opposition.
