Online platforms can't abuse data to impact free choice: Prasad
New Delhi, Sep 7 : The government on Friday reiterated its firm stand on data privacy and against online platforms abusing data to impact free choice in India.
Speaking at the Global Mobility Summit here on data analytics and mobility, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said acquisition of big data should be done with fair and transparent principles.
"You can't abuse data to impact free choice in India... We have flagged (this) very very clearly," said the Minister.
Of late, the IT Ministry has taken a strong stance on data privacy and its reported misuse in the electoral process of the country, among others.
Earlier, in June Prasad, who is also the Law Minister, had said that any attempt to influence the 2019 general elections by any "covert or overt" manner would not be accepted.
The Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee on data protection in India submitted to the government in July suggested amendments to various laws, including the Aadhaar Act, to provide for imposition of penalties on data fiduciaries for violations of the data protection law.
"The citizen's rights have to be protected, the responsibilities of the states have to be defined, but the data protection can't be at the cost of trade and industry," the report had said.
Prasad, on Friday, further said: "Internet is one of the finest creations of human mind, it should not remain the monopoly of few."
"If Internet is to become truly global it must have linkage with the local -- local ideas, local views, local heritage."
He also emphasised on the need for a balance among data availability, data utility, data innovation, data anonymity and data privacy.
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36 ex-judges slam Opposition move to impeach Justice Swaminathan
New Delhi (PTI): Thirty-six former judges on Saturday gave a call to people, including parliamentarians, to denounce opposition leaders' move to impeach Madras High Court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, saying such an attempt, if allowed to proceed, would cut at the very roots of democracy and independence of the judiciary.
On December 1, Justice Swaminathan held that the Arulmighu Subramania Swamy Temple was duty-bound to light the lamp at the Deepathoon, in addition to the customary lighting near the Uchi Pillaiyar Mandapam.
The single-judge bench said that doing so would not encroach upon the rights of the adjacent dargah or the Muslim community.
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The order sparked a row, and on December 9, several opposition MPs, led by the DMK, submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to move a motion for the removal of the judge.
Taking serious exception to the move, the former judges in a joint statement said this is a "brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society".
"If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary," they said.
"We therefore call upon all stakeholders -- Members of Parliament across party lines, members of the Bar, civil society, and citizens at large -- to unequivocally denounce this move and ensure that it is nipped in the bud at the very inception," they added.
The statement emphasised that the judges must remain answerable to their oath and to the Constitution of India, not to "partisan political pressures or ideological intimidation".
"The message from all constitutional stakeholders must be clear and firm: in a republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique, and not by threats of impeachment for political nonconformity," it said.
The statement was signed by former Supreme Court judge Krishn Murari J as well as ex-chief justices and former judges of different high courts.
The statement said the opposition party's move is not an "isolated aberration". It fits into a "clear and deeply troubling pattern" in India's recent constitutional history, where sections of the political class have sought to discredit and intimidate the higher judiciary whenever outcomes do not align with their interests, it added.
"The unprecedented bid in 2018 to initiate impeachment proceedings against then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the sustained campaigns of vilification directed at Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud while they were in office," the statement noted.
"The targeted attacks now being mounted against the incumbent CJI, Justice Surya Kant, whenever a judgment/remark displeases a political constituency, are all manifestations of the same trend," it said.
"This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure -- a practice that strikes at the heart of judicial independence and the basic norms of constitutional democracy," the statement added.
