Kerala High Court Upholds Govt Decision to Send DA Messages to Employees; Calls It Sign of Good Governance

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has ruled that there is no illegality in the government's decision to send messages related to DA to government employees. In his verdict, Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed that such communication is part of governance in a welfare state and does not violate privacy.

Dismissing a petition challenging the practice, the court stated that sending messages to inform employees about government decisions can be considered a component of good governance in welfare politics. The court's decision comes as a setback for the opposition and sections of the media that had criticised the government's initiative.

Opposition parties and some right-wing media outlets had earlier alleged that the SPARK database, which contains details of state government employees, was being misused or that employee information had been leaked to send such messages.

During earlier hearings, the court had questioned what was illegal in the government informing employees that it supports their rights. The bench observed that technology can be used to make governance easier and more transparent. It was clarified that the messages were sent through an official account of the Kerala State IT Mission, not from the personal account of the Chief Minister, and that no third party was involved in the communication.

An official from the IT Mission informed the court that the organisation was solely responsible for sending the messages. The IT Mission uses several sender IDs, one of which is the “Chief Minister’s Office, Kerala” ID. The official also explained that verified accounts on the Meta platform are used to send such messages in order to ensure authenticity and prevent misuse or cybercrime.