Kerala High Court Reviews Alleged Unauthorized Use of Employee Data by CMO for Messaging Campaign

A petition filed in the Kerala High Court alleges that the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) accessed personal data of government employees and beneficiaries from the SPARK database without authorization to send bulk messages highlighting government achievements ahead of elections. Petitioners claim this violates privacy rights under Article 21 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The court questioned the legality of the data use, ordered an immediate halt to the messaging campaign, and sought government clarification on data processing authority.