The High Court yesterday declared the ongoing biometric SIM registration with fingerprints legal.
An HC bench of Justice Sayed Mohammad Dastagir Hossain and Justice AKM Shahidur Rahman gave the verdict, rejecting a writ petition that challenged the legality of collecting fingerprints of mobile phone users in the process.
The court also ordered the country’s mobile phone operators to ensure secrecy of the information collected by them for the purpose, reports the Bangla Tribune.
Additional Attorney General Murad Reza, Barrister Khandaker Reza E Raquib, and Barrister Sayed Mahsib Hossain represented the government in the hearing.
On Sunday, the court fixed the date following the final hearing on the writ petition to declare its stance. A lawyer filed the petition on March 9 which was heard by the HC bench on March 14. After primary hearing, the court issued a ruling asking the government as to why collecting biometric information of subscribers through a third party, the telecom operators, will not be declared illegal.
The law secretary, Election Commission, the telecom secretary, the BTRC chairman and the chief executive officers of Grameenphone, Robi Axiata Ltd, Airtel Bangladesh Ltd, Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, Pacific Bangladesh Ltd, and Orascom Bangladesh Ltd were made the respondents to the ruling. They were asked to come up with explanations within a week.
The court held the hearing on the ruling on April 3 and 10.
The petition mentioned that collecting such private information of citizens by the mobile companies was not safe for people.
Except Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, the owners of five mobile operators are foreigners. So, there is a high risk of the collected information getting leaked out by them and it can cause a great loss to the people and the country.
The move would create a high risk if national and international criminal organisations, networks or syndicates get access to the database. Collecting such information through biometric SIM registration should be stopped immediately, he said.
The government launched the mandatory biometric SIM/RIM registration on December 16 last year.
All biometric SIM registration processes must be completed by April, or else, mobile operators have to face a $50 penalty against each unverified SIM, a BTRC official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
According to the latest data from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, there are 131.4 million active mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh.
Ekram Kabir, vice-president (communications and corporate responsibility) of Robi said: “We welcome wholeheartedly the High Court verdict on biometric SIM card registration. After this verdict the process of biometric SIM card registration will expedite.”
He said he hoped that those who had not registered their SIM cards yet would complete it by April 30.
Sayed Talat Kamal, head of the external communication of Grameenphone, said: “We expect to see a rise in the number of subscribers coming to re-register their SIMs as the High Court has declared biometric SIM re-registration legal. We strictly maintain that Grameenphone does not store any fingerprints on its own system and that the identity of the subscriber is always protected.”
Source: Dhaka Tribune
