The Supreme Court expressed concern over private entities accessing sensitive employee and tax records, urging the government to implement safeguards amid rising commercial use of personal data collected by public authorities.
The Supreme Court on Monday flagged as “worrisome” the reported access by private entities to sensitive records held by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and the income-tax department, and urged the Centre to consider safeguards against misuse.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana declined to entertain a public interest petition brought by Piyush Sharma, but said the issue belonged in the policy sphere and called on the government to examine it with help from domain experts. According to the court, the concern is not limited to data collection by the state itself, but to the possibility that personal information submitted to public authorities under law could later be tapped by commercial systems.
The petition alleged that a growing technology-driven verification industry may be using provident fund and tax records to access and cross-check personal details. Sharma told the court that entering only Permanent Account Number and Universal Account Number details into a private verification process had reportedly produced his full employment history, without any apparent consent step, one-time password or visible authorisation check. He did not accuse government agencies of leaking data, but argued that information supplied to them under statutory obligations may still be exposed to private use without adequate safeguards.
The bench said the issue of how such verification systems should be regulated was for the executive to address, but it asked the government to take necessary steps to prevent misuse of individual data by private businesses. Business Standard and The Times of India reported similar concerns, including the court’s reference to a commercial ecosystem built around the retrieval and verification of employment and financial records. A separate report in The CSR Journal said the court stopped short of finding that any particular firm had unlawfully accessed records, but wanted the government to respond to the wider risk.
The hearing adds to a broader legal debate in India over who can access personal data that sits in state databases, and on what terms. The case comes as courts and policymakers are increasingly being pressed to balance digital verification, privacy rights and commercial data use, especially where records collected for social security or tax compliance may be repurposed for hiring decisions, moonlighting checks or labour profiling.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
