Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Wednesday warned the Union finance ministry of imposing fine for failing to file a counter in a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to protect personal data of citizens in CIBIL score reports. A division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin directed the principal secretary, Union finance ministry, to file the counter affidavits by March 17.During the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for finance ministry sought some more time to file a counter. Responding to this, the bench warned of imposing fine and adjourned the matterA PIL was filed by Hyderabad resident Krupa Soni in 2021 seeking to stay a 2021 Reserve Bank of India notification regarding Credit Information Companies Amendment Regulations.The petitioner urged the court to restrain major credit information companies, including TransUnion CIBIL, Equifax, Experian, and CRIF High Mark, from collecting, processing, and disseminating the personal information of citizens.The PIL contended that the current practice involved publishing credit score reports under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act and its subsequent rules on public platforms accessible to various entities.The PIL urged directions to stay these activities until a fair, transparent, effective, and independent mechanism was formulated to address and resolve disputes regarding credit information provided by financial institutions, and cited the need for a more robust system to handle disputed data before it was used to generate and publish CIBIL scores that impact the financial standing of citizens.Notices were issued to the Union finance ministry and the credit information companies in Dec 2021 and May 2023. However, counter affidavits were yet to be filed.
