Kerala Govt Can’t Hand Over Covid-19 Patients’ Data To 3rd Party Without Our Consent, Centre Tells High Court

The Kerala Government cannot hand over data on patients record to a third party without the Centre’s consent, the High Court was informed today (21 April).

Responding to a petition against the controversial State Government deal to share Coronavirus patients data with a US firm in the Kerala High Court, the Union Government’s advocate said the Centre would seek an explanation from the Pinarayi Vijayan Government.

The advocate also said that any data on patients should be stored in servers inside the country, Malayalam daily Mathrbhumi reported.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Devan Ramachandran and T R Ravi, taking up the petition for hearing, has asked the Union and State governments to respond to its queries by 24 April.

The Kerala Government has entered into a deal with Sprinklr, the US-based firm, to record data on Coronavirus patients and suspects. The deal has triggered a huge controversy in the State.

The State Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Government began using the citizen experience management platform of Sprinklr to record Coronavirus data.

Another controversy over the deal is US multi-national pharmaceutical major Pfizer allegedly getting access to the Kerala coronavirus data.

The US firm’s citizen experience management platform is used to record data on Covid-19 patients and suspects in the state.