CMO Bulk Messaging Issue: Kerala Government Assures High Court No Further Messages Till Monday

The Kerala government on Friday (February 27) submitted before the High Court that its earlier undertaking to refrain from disseminating bulk messages from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) can continue till Monday (March 2).Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas recorded the submission of the special government pleader while considering a plea alleging that the CMO has violated the privacy of government employees and judges by illegally accessing their mobile phone numbers, email IDs and sending bulk messages as a form of election campaign.During the last posting, the Court had orally remarked that prima facie, there is an intrusion of privacy by the bulk messaging sent through the WhatsApp business account of CMO. An interim order was also passed then, granting the State time till today to satisfy to the Court that the phone numbers were received legally and through proper channels. The State's undertaking that no similar messages would be sent till then was also recorded by the Court.When the matter came up for consideration today, Senior Advocate George Poonthottam moved an interim application to accept three additional documents. As per the application, one of the documents was a communication issued by the Chief Minister's OSD to the department of Local-Self government seeking information of registered users of K-SMART application, including phone numbers for the purpose of designing a digital communication system called "Centralised Notification Hub for Government Services".The second document was a similar communication for contact details of the beneficiaries of the "Sthree Suraksha Padhathi".The third document was a 2016 order of the finance department of the State government stating that permissive sanction has been issued to procure Digital Signature Certificates to all Drawing and Disbursing officers.In the affidavit filed with the application, it is also stated that after filing of the present plea, messages were sent to around 1 crore people in the State, who are receiving benefits extended or wages paid by the State. According to the petitioners, the produced communication confirms leakage of data and violation of Rules of Business. It is also stated that similar communications as produced may have been sent to other departments as well."As the deponent understands, similar communications have been issued to the Department of Finance, who are in control of SPARK, and several other offices who are in possession of the data of the general public, employees of the State, and persons who are in receipt of several forms of benefits from the State Government," states the petitioner in his affidavit.Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup appeared for the State and submitted that counter affidavit will be filed addressing the interim application as well. He contended that the newly produced documents have nothing to do with the present plea, which is relating to SPARK (Service Pay Roll Administrative Repository for Kerala) alone. Since the interim application was unopposed by the State, the Court allowed the application and posted the case to Monday."Let the undertaking continue till Monday. I'll go through the documents," Justice Bechu said orally.The Court observed: "Posted to Monday. The special government pleader agrees that the undertaking given can be extended till the next posting date."The petition is moved by Advocates George Poonthottam (Sr.), Nisha George, A.L. Navaneeth Krishnan and Kavya Varma M. Case No: WP(C) 7090/2026Case Title: Dr. Rasheed Ahammed P. and Anr. v. State of Kerala and Ors.

CMO Bulk Messaging Issue: Kerala Government Assures High Court No Further Messages Till Monday

K. Salma Jennath

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