Madras High Court blocks State move to collect personal data of school students, says privacy violation

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently quashed an order to collect sensitive personal data regarding the social background of higher secondary school students in Model Schools run by the State, terming such a move to be a privacy rights violation [Ameer Alam Vs State of Tamil Nadu].

A Bench comprising Justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan held that the collection of sensitive personal data from school students without a clear purpose violates their right to privacy and amounts to discrimination against students from vulnerable backgrounds.

"The data sought to be collected as well as the manner in which, it is to be documented, in our view is absolutely in violation of privacy and such information sought to be collected from the students, who are pursuing their studies in Model School run by the Government, is clear discrimination and ill-treatment of the students of the Model School," the January 5 ruling said.

The Court added that the move would only demoralise students who come from stigmatic social backgrounds.

"This Court finds that it is an absolute abuse of power to demoralise the students, who have stigmatic background. Hence, the impugned order stands quashed and this writ petition is allowed," the Court said.

The case concerned a directive issued on September 4, 2025, by the Member Secretary, Model School, of the Tamil Nadu Education Department.

The proceedings directed government-run model schools to collect personal and social background information from students studying in Classes 9 to 12.

The information sought to be collected was tied to 25 questions concerning the social and familial background of the students, including whether they were from refugee, nomadic, or gypsy communities, or migrants from other States, or from oppressed caste backgrounds. The queries also dealt with whether the students had gender non-conformity issues, or whether they were survivors of abuse and violence and whether their families had a history of substance abuse.

Teachers were required to collect such information from students and upload it to the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal.

This move was challenged before the High Court by a writ petition. The petitioner contended that the nature of the information sought and the manner of its collection violated students’ right to privacy. It was also argued that the categorisation exposed children from vulnerable backgrounds to stigma and discrimination.

The Model School authorities claimed that the information was being collected so that special attention could be given to students requiring it. However, the Court was not convinced by this answer. It noted that the counsel representing the Model School authorities was unable to properly explain in detail what purpose would be served by collecting such personal information.

The Court also rejected the justification offered by the Model School authorities that the data was being collected in their role as parens patriae.

“It is not explained as to what is the special attention that is are going to show to the students. The information are very sensitive and manner in which they are going to collect, will necessarily traverse into the privacy of the young students," the Court held, before quashing the directive under challenge.

The petitioner was represented by Advocate M Aboobacker Siddik.

The State government and Model School authorities were represented by Government Pleader M Thilak Kumar and Kavitha Deenadhayalan

[Read Judgment]