An Accra High Court has set June 23, 2020 to rule on an application seeking to restrain the government from obtaining the personal information of mobile subscribers for purposes of contact tracing in the Covid-19 pandemic fight in the country.
The application seeks to put the exercise on hold until the determination of a substantive suit challenging Executive Instrument (EI 63) which gives the government the power to obtain the personal information of mobile subscribers in the country.
The court, presided over by Justice Stephen Oppong, has also given lawyers in the matter up to June 15, 2020 to file all their arguments and serve the court.
Main Suit
A private legal practitioner, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, sued government, seeking to stop the President, Kelni GVG and the National Communication Authority (NCA) from securing his personal mobile information from Vodafone and MTN Ghana for contact tracing.
He contends that access to such information which is in the possession of the telecoms companies will amount to a breach of his fundamental human right to privacy.
Mr. Arthur’s argument is that although the President has the power to procure his personal information under the appropriate circumstances taking into account the appropriate factors, the manner in which the government is seeking to procure the information at this particular time breaches the law and violates his right to administrative justice, to privacy and equality.
He is seeking, among other things, an order of the High Court “to quash the President’s directives in EI 63 to the extent that they have violated, are violating or are likely to violate his fundamental human rights and freedoms.”
He is also seeking “a perpetual injunction to restrain Vodafone Ghana and MTN Ghana from relying on EI 63 to make his personal information in their possession available to the President, the Government, Kelni GVG and the National Communication Authority”.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak