The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) were at the receiving end of the Central Information Commission (CIC), which expressed shock at how both the government agencies claimed to have no information on how the Aarogya Setu App was created.

India's information watchdog issued a notice to the information officers of MEITY, NIC and National E-Governance Division (NeGD), asking them to reply why penalties should not be levied against them under the RTI Act.

Hearing a plea by independent journalist Saurav Das, the CIC observed that it was extremely preposterous that MEITY and NIC had no information on movement of files while creating the contact tracing app.

Das argued that he filed an application under RTI to secure details about who created the Aarogya Setu app, the process for consultation and development of the app, and the observations and file notings as per government records.

As the government agencies did not share any information regarding the portal or the app with the RTI applicant, he moved the CIC which is an appellate body on RTI Act that empowers Indian nationals to seek information from government departments and public agencies.

The CIC expressed its inability to understand why the RTI query was forwarded from MEITY to National E-Governance Division, with neither providing any answers. The CIC also took exception to how the NIC, when served with similar queries, failed to provide answers and forwarded the RTI application to other government agencies.

In its order, the CIC noted that denial of info cannot be accepted and citizens cannot be made to go round in circles. The order stated that the CIC is now compelled to find out how the app was created with no info available with NIC, NeGD or MEITY.

Moreover, the CIC asked the NIC to explain how it claims to have no information when the website of the app operates with a gov.in domain name.

The CIC observed that the app clearly stated, “Content

The order suggested that the app is being used by the masses and breach of privacy cannot be completely ruled out. The order reprimanded the government, observing that that MEITY and NIC cannot wash their hands off by not replying to the petitioner.

Arogya Setu is a government web based application that tracks if its users in India were exposed to confirmed COVID-19 patients. It does so by calibrating the proximity of the user's cell phone with that of a COVID-19 patient whose details are in a government database.

The app is mandatory for people travelling by air or trains across India. However, a controversy had erupted on data privacy concerns over Arogya Setu app.

Meanwhile, the government issued a statement on the controversy and said: "As per the orders of the CIC, CPIOs of MeitY, NeGD and NIC have been directed to appear on 24th November 2020. MeitY is taking necessary steps to comply with the orders of the CIC.

"With regard to the above, it is clarified that there should be no doubt with regard to the Aarogya Setu App and its role in helping contain COVID-19 pandemic in India. As was announced through press releases and social media posts on 2nd April 2020, Aarogya Setu App was launched by Government of India in public private partnership mode to bring people of India together in its fight against COVID-19.

"The Aarogya Setu App was developed in a record time of around 21 days, to respond to the exigencies of the Pandemic with Lockdown restrictions only for the objective of building a Made in India Contact Tracing App with the best of Indian minds from Industry, Academia and Government, working round the clock to build a robust, scalable and secure App. Since 2nd April 2020, regular press releases and updates have been issued on Aarogya Setu App including making the source code available in Open domain on 26th May 2020. The names of all those associated with the development of the App and management of the App ecosystem at various stages was shared when the code was released in Open/Public Domain and the same was shared widely in media also.

"The same can be accessed here. On all such occasions, it has been clearly mentioned that the Aarogya Setu App has been developed by NIC in collaboration with volunteers from Industry and Academia. Aarogya Setu app has been developed in the most transparent manner and all details and documents including Privacy Policy and Aarogya Setu Data Access & Knowledge Sharing Protocols issued on 11th May 2020 has been uploaded on the Aarogya Setu Portal – aarogyasetu.gov.in."

First Published:Oct 28, 2020 4:48 PM IST