The High Court (HC) on Wednesday questioned the legality of the BTRC directive on the mobile phone operators to create a separate database with the people's personal information collecting from the national identity cards database stored by the Election Commission (EC) and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The court issued a rule, asking the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why the directive of the Bangladesh Telecommun-ication and Regulatory Com-mission (BTRC) should not be scrapped.
In the rule, it also asked them to show causes as to why they should not be ordered to preserve the personal information on all the citizens, which have been stored by the EC and the ministry.
Secretary at the Cabinet Division, Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, Secretaries at the Ministries of Home Affairs, Information and Communication and Posts and Telecommunications, Chief Election Commissioner, Director General of National Identity Cards, Chairman of BTRC and President Bangladesh Mobile Operators Association have been made respondents to the rule.
The HC bench comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah issued the rule following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), challenging the BTRC's action.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared in the hearing for the writ petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.
According to the petition, the BTRC reportedly in February ordered the mobile companies to create a database collecting and storing information including names, addresses of their customers.
Earlier, mobile companies used to collect their customers' information from the EC's national identity card database, the petitioner said in the petition.
During hearing on the petition, HRPB's lawyer Manzill told the HC that if the mobile companies start following the BTRC directive, the personal information on common people will go to the private organisations and that will be a threat to the national security.
Besides, people will suffer financially which is against the constitution and law, he argued. If the personal information on citizens go under the control of private companies, the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution will be violated, he added.
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