'Violation Of Privacy': Madras High Court Slams State For Collecting 'Sensitive' Information Of School Students

The Madras High Court recently criticised the State for collecting sensitive data of students who had stigmatic background. Justice G Jayachandran and Justice KK Ramakrishnan set aside an order passed by the Member Secretary of the Model School, calling for certain information of students. The court noted that the information was sensitive and there was no explanation on how this data was going to be used or stored. Calling it a violation of the privacy of students, the court noted that it would be a clear discrimination and ill-treatment of students studying in the Model schools. “The data sought to be collected as well as the manner in which, it is to be documented, in our view is absolutely in violation of privacy and such information sought to be collected from the students, who are pursuing their studies in Model School run by the Government, is clear discrimination and ill-treatment of the students of the Model School and contrary to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Justice K.S.Puttaswamy (Retd.) and another vs. Union of India and others [AIR 2017 SC 4161],” the court observed. The court was dealing with a public interest litigation challenging the collection of sensitive data from students studying in classes from 9th to 12th in Model Schools. The court noted that though a counter affidavit was filed, it did not explain the purpose for which the information was being collected from the students. The court also added that the counsel for Model school could also not explain the purpose of data collection from vulnerable students and only submitted that the data was not collected publicly and would be well secured. After going through the documents, the court noted that the information was collected to show special attention on students suffering some stigmas like orphaned students, students with single parent, student in conflict with law, children of prisoners, children from nomadic/gypsy community, students with special needs, students with parents having special needs, students from urban tenements, students with separated or divorced parents, wards of sanitary workers, students whose parents were terminally ill, migrant students, students with gender non-conformity issues, students from SC/ST community, first generation graduates, students involved in co-curricular activities, children in need of special care & protection, students who had survived abuse/violence, students with history of substance abuse, students whose parents were folklore artist, students whose parents were from fishing occupation, students needing support. The court noted that the documents failed to show what special attention was to be shown to the child. Though the school claimed that it needed to document this information as parens patriae, the court ruled that the collection of data would traverse into the privacy of young students. Thus, observing that there was an abuse of power to demoralise students who had stigmatic background, the court was inclined to allow the public interest litigation and set aside the order seeking collection of data from the students. Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. M. Aboobacker Siddik Counsel for Respondent: Mr. P. Thilakkumar Government Pleader Ms. Kavitha Deenadhayalan Case Title: Ameer Alam v. The Government of Tamil Nadu and Others Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 40 Case No: W.P.(MD)No.29474 of 2025Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

'Violation Of Privacy': Madras High Court Slams State For Collecting 'Sensitive' Information Of School Students

Upasana Sajeev

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