The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to immediately ascertain whether Aadhaar data of citizens had been compromised. It asked the UIDAI to ascertain if the Puducherry unit of BJP had been able to access mobile phone numbers of voters in the union territory from the UIDAI database as claimed by a public interest litigant.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy issued the direction after expressing displeasure over a submission made by a central government standing counsel, representing UIDAI, that the litigant A. Anand of Democratic Youth Federation of India, had not made any representation to it. The judges said the authority could have acted on the basis of information provided to it by the Election Commission.

Passing interim orders on the PIL petition, the first Division Bench wrote: “It is apparent that the sixth respondent (BJP) political party may have resorted to a form of campaigning (sending bulk SMS with links to join the party’s booth level WhatsApp groups) not permissible under the model code of conduct. It is also evident that personal details of voters and citizens may have been obtained by such political party and put to use for campaign purposes.”

It added, “Unfortunately, rather than the seventh respondent (UIDAI) authority trying to ascertain how the personal details of voters may have been leaked from its system, such authority accuses the petitioner of not having brought the matter to the notice of the relevant authority. The Election Commission, however, says that it has brought the matter to the notice of the seventh respondent. The seventh respondent should immediately ascertain how such material could have been accessed by a particular political party.”

The Bench also took note of elaborate submissions made by the Election Commission with respect to the action taken by it on the issue so far and granted it time till March 31 to file another status report. When the petitioners’ counsel complained that the bulk SMS were being sent unabatedly even after the filing of the case, the judges said: “It is for the Election Commission to take immediate action if such is the case.”

On yet another complaint made by the litigant that the Puducherry police was harassing him in the guise of investigating the matter, the judges wrote: “The investigating agency is reminded of its duties despite the allegiance that it may seek to portray.”

Earlier, the Puducherry Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) informed the court of having issued a show cause notice to the BJP on March 7 itself for sending bulk SMS to voters in the Union Territory without obtaining permission from Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). It also sought a response for not submitting particulars of expenditure for such a campaign to the Election Expenditure Monitoring Team.

Senior counsel G. Rajagopalan, representing the Election Commission and the CEO, said BJP had not responded to the show cause notice. He added that notices had been issued to BSNL, Airtel, Jio and Vodafone too seeking explanation for facilitating issuance of bulk SMS in contravention of Election Commission’s instructions.

The District Election Officer had lodged a complaint with the senior superintendent of police, cyber crime for initiating appropriate action. The police had begun investigating the matter and identifying the administrators of booth level WhatsApp groups to which the voters were reportedly made to join by the political party by sharing a link through issuance of bulk SMS to their mobile phone numbers.

The police had informed the Election Commission that the Puducherry convenor of BJP Karthikeyan had submitted a letter addressed to the CEO on March 8 seeking permission for sending bulk SMS to the voters. Denying receipt of any such requisition, the senior counsel told the first Division Bench that neither the CEO nor the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi had received any such letter.

The court was also told that the Election Commission had made it mandatory for the MCMC to pre-certify political advertisements proposed to be aired on electronic media and that communications sent to voters through bulk SMS would also fall under such stipulation. The counsel assured the court that all out measures had been taken by the commission following a complaint lodged by the PIL petitioner alleging misuse of voters’ personal data by BJP.

Since he had claimed that the bulk SMS had been sent only to mobile phone numbers linked to Aadhaar, the Election Commission had informed about it to UIDAI too, Mr. Rajagopalan said. He said the CEO had also requested the CEC to take up the matter with the nodal officer of WhatsApp and deactivate all unauthorised booth level WhatsApp groups created by the Puducherry BJP for campaigning purposes.