Sri Lanka digital ID faces a legal showdown

Two fundamental rights petitions to halt the implementation of Sri Lanka’s Unique Digital Identity (SL-UDI) program have been filed within a space of a month in the country’s Supreme Court.

The initial petition, initiated by Lina Amani Rishard Hamid, a member of the voluntary organization “The Nationalist,” names several high-ranking officials, including the President and Prime Minister, as respondents.

As the SL-UDI is funded by a grant from India, the petition states that the government’s actions pertaining to this project violate constitutional provisions, data sovereignty, national security, and public finance laws.

Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front, echoed similar concerns regarding the SL-UDI Program in his fundamental rights petition. He also cited the lack of transparency in the Cabinet’s decisions and the potential risks to citizens’ data security, highlighting the vulnerability to identity theft and misuse of personal information due to inadequate safeguards in the proposed arrangement. Both petitions are supported by legal counsel, indicating a significant legal challenge to the government’s digital identity initiatives.

Hamid alleged that the government has secretly amended a memorandum of understanding with the Government of India, effectively outsourcing the country’s digital identity infrastructure and biometric data control to Indian authorities and contractors. She has said that the two cabinet decisions on January 27 and June 2nd were taken in secret without informing the parliament or the public. She has also said that amendments to the original 2022 memorandum of understanding, allowing India to select and control the core technical infrastructure, including the master systems integrator and biometric database software, were approved secretly.

Noting that the Department of Registration of Persons has already developed a fully functional e-NIC or Electronic National Identity Card system, with around LKR 5.5 billion investment, and more than 80 percent of implementation completed, she alleged that the project was reportedly ready for deployment with minimal additional funding, but it was sidelined to favor the Indian project.

She has said that the government is breaching Articles 1,3, 4, 12, 14, and 157 of the Sri Lankan constitution, by surrendering the sovereign powers, without parliamentary sanction, and by concealing the amended memorandum of understanding from the legislature as well as the public.

The Information Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) has still not received the second FR petition. Officials at the ICTA said that this may be due to the island wide postal strike, which started recently by the Postal and Telecommunication Officers Union and the United Postal Trade Unions Front.

The strike initiated at the mail exchange in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, was triggered by the planned introduction of biometric scanners for staff attendance. This development highlights the ongoing tensions between management and employees regarding workplace monitoring and privacy concerns. The situation stresses the need for effective communication and negotiation between the parties involved to address the employees’ apprehensions about the new technology, industry analysts said.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  India  |  lawsuits  |  SL-UDI  |  Sri Lanka