A PIL in the Supreme Court seeks guidelines governing investigative access to personal and digital data. The plea calls for necessary, proportionate requests that safeguard privacy and other fundamental rights.
A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking comprehensive guidelines to regulate how criminal investigation agencies collect and access personal and digital data, with a focus on safeguarding citizens’ fundamental right to privacy.
The petition seeks constitutionally compliant safeguards governing requests for digital information, including movement records, timestamps and metadata of online posts. It argues that investigative agencies should be required to specify the purpose of a data request, the categories of information sought, the relevant time period and its connection to the alleged offence.
The petitioner has urged that data collection be limited to what is strictly necessary and proportionate to the investigation, warning that indiscriminate access to an individual’s entire digital history could lead to an unjustified intrusion into private life.
