Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has moved the Kerala High Court challenging the government decision to collect the Call Data Records (CDR) of COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine at their houses or hospitals.
The police have been collecting the CDR on the basis of a circular issued by the State Police Chief on August 11. The circular asked the Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) and the Police Headquarters to take up the matter with telephone service providers for the collection of CDRs, he submitted.
The police had started collecting CDRs of COVID-19 patients in large scale from telecom companies without the consent or knowledge of the patients. There was no legal authority on the part of the police chief to issue such a circular to collect CDRs, he submitted.
Terming the collection of CDR illegal, unfair, unjust and arbitrary in nature, Mr. Chennithala pointed out that it was in total violation of the fundamental right of privacy of individuals guaranteed by the Constitution.
