Kolkata: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has scrapped its tender seeking bids for a social media monitoring agency.
This UIDAI decision was in response to a petition filed by Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, also a member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, challenging the proposed move.
This is the second time that the Centre had to roll back its plans on social media surveillance after Moitra moved SC in 2018. In August, the Centre had told SC that it was dropping its plans to set up a social media monitoring hub but insisted it would keep options open on “reviving the plan”.
According to reports, attorney general K K Venugopal told a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph that not only is UIDAI withdrawing its tender for bids but will also not float any such tender.
Moitra on Tuesday dubbed this a “huge victory”. She said: “On my petition, UIDAI tells Supreme Court they are withdrawing tender for intended Social Media Surveillance Hub and says not planning to float any more in near future.” She also expressed her gratitude to senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who had argued the case.
Moitra had filed a writ petition challenging the Request for Proposal (RFP) on July 18, 2018 floated by UIDAI inviting proposals for “hiring of Social Media Agency of UIDAI HQ, New Delhi”.
According to Moitra, the Social Media Agency was to be a third-party contractor deploying its own employees on the premises of UIDAI.
Full report on www.toi.in