NEW DELHI: In the wake of allegations of “snooping” levelled against its proposed

communication hub (SMCH), intended to track social media comment, the

withdrew the proposal on Friday and ended the possibility of the Supreme Court scrutinising its legality.

As soon as a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud took up a PIL filed by

Congress MLA Mohua Moitra challenging the decision to create SMCH, attorney general K K Venugopal said the government has decided to withdraw the request for proposal (RFP) and will re-evaluate the policy decision.

The proposal had run into a controversy over its detailed terms that had even mentioned scrutiny of emails, something that cannot be done without a specific sanction for the purposes of a criminal investigation. The broad intent, the government had previously maintained, was to track social media sentiment just as several private and public organisations do. But with the issue becoming a political hot potato, the government lost interest in the proposal and informed the

of its decision.

With the AG informing the court that the Centre had withdrawn the proposal for a thorough review, the CJI-led bench wasted no time in disposing of Moitra’s petition.

The Centre had earlier defended the SMCH decision saying it was to keep the government abreast of citizens’ views on its programmes and enable understanding perception on the working of various schemes. It had claimed it would attempt to inculcate nationalistic feelings among citizens and be able to counter campaigns intended to harm India’s image globally.

Moitra’s counsel, senior advocate A M Singhvi, had alleged that the SMCH would become a tool in the hands of a private agency to help the government launch surveillance on citizens’ activities on social media platforms that would blatantly violate the right to privacy, which a nine-judge bench of the SC had on August 24 last year declared to be a part of the right to life. “It is a project to create advance surveillance infrastructure in the country,” Singhvi had alleged. The SC had on July 13 sought the Centre’s response to Moitra’s petition.

The RFP for SMCH had specified that the successful bidder would be required “to collect digital media chatter from all core social media platforms as well as digital platforms like news, blogs and forums”. The specified social and digital platforms included Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, Play Store and others, including email.

Moitra, in her petition filed through Mohammed Nizam Pasha, had accused the Centre of attempting to intrude into the privacy of citizens for the creation of a 360-degree profile of people “who are creating a buzz in social media”. She said the move violated the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution as well as other fundamental rights of citizens.

Besides looking to improve perception management of India, the hub was intended to help “predict and neutralise any media blitzkrieg from India’s adversaries and if social media and internet news and discussions could be given a positive slant for India”.

What had worried the petitioner more was the requirement to store citizens’ activities on social media and archive them.