Telangana HC Issues Notice over PIL Challenging Use of Facial Recognition Technology

The Telangana high court on Monday issued a notice to the state government on public interest litigation (PIL) over the increasing use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in the state, Live Law reported.

The PIL was filed by activist S.Q. Masood, with the support of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), is an organization that works in the domain of digital rights, privacy, and expression.

The pleas argued that deploying facial recognition technology by the state was not backed by law, thus it was unnecessary, disproportionate and without any safeguards. The case will be taken up on January 15.

On May 31 last year, Masood, a resident of Telangana’s captial Hyderabad sent a legal notice to the police commissioner after he was stopped by eight to ten police officers on his way home on May 19. The police had asked him to take off his mask so they could take his picture, despite the country being in the midst of the second wave of Covid-19 infections then. When he refused, the police took his picture anyway, without his consent, even though he was in compliance with all the rules.

He later filed a PIL in the court against police commissioner of Hyderabad city, raising questions about the facial recognition technology, which restricts a citizen’s right to privacy without complying with applicable law. It stated that there are no procedural safeguards to protect from misuse and ensure that the data collected is used properly.

According to IFF, the petition said, “Currently, the police in Telangana have complete discretion in who to deploy FRT on and where to deploy FRT, apart from covertly capturing photographs through CCTV cameras.”

The plea stated that the use of FRT in Telangana is not for a specific purpose but is used for mass surveillance and the state must show probable cause for deploying the same.

The activist’s counsel Manoj Reddy argued that the use of facial recognition technology violates the right to privacy.

In November, international human rights organization Amnesty International called Hyderabad as being on the brink of a “total surveillance city” and pointed out to the Command and Control Centre that wants to connect the “state’s vast facial recognition-capable CCTV infrastructure in real-time”. It also has the most facial recognition technology projects in India. Worrying developments in the state, have also led Article 19 to raise concerns regarding the Orwellian surveillance implications.

After hearing submissions from the activist’s lawyer, the high court bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili issued notice to the state government.

Latest Indian news

Popular Stories

Latest Video