We have been pursuing information relating to the scope and scale of e-surveillance conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs since December 2018. The Ministry of Home Affairs (‘MHA’) had originally claimed that the information is exempt for national security, but the Central Information Commissioner (‘CIC’) said that this doesn’t apply - and directed the MHA to hear the matter again. When the MHA heard the matter again, it now claimed that it cannot provide the information anyway, because it has destroyed it! We filed another appeal before the CIC, and also filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court to protect against further destruction of data in the meanwhile, and highlighting the immense delays faced in the CIC. The Delhi High Court has now directed the CIC to tell the High Court a timeline within which our appeal will be decided.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/the-delhi-high-court-directs-the-cic-to-provide-a-time-frame-within-which-our-second-appeal-for-information-on-surveillance-orders-will-be-decided/