1 Answer
Dear Sir,
The conduct described may amount to unauthorised use and disclosure of personal information, abuse of official position, and arbitrary/retaliatory administrative action. You had furnished your old Aadhaar address and your current correspondence address for the limited purpose of pursuing a grievance against the Postal Department. If the Division Head thereafter used those details to contact the owner of your former address, disclosed your current address, and represented or implied that you were improperly using the owner's address or that the owner would face future problems unless he acted against you, such conduct can potentially raise issues under The applicability of the Aadhaar Act and DPDP Act should be examined specifically based on how the officer obtained and used the information and the dates involved.
The most effective course would be to preserve the original letter and envelope, obtain an affidavit from the former premises owner, preserve the grievance/email records showing that your current address was separately furnished, and immediately seek the departmental file through RTI, including the authority and reasons for contacting the owner. Simultaneously, a detailed representation can be made to the higher Postal authorities seeking an independent inquiry, withdrawal of the impugned communication and preservation of all electronic/file records. If the Department fails to provide an adequate remedy, an Article 226 writ petition before the High Court can seek declaration that the disclosure and retaliatory action were illegal and arbitrary, restraint against further disclosure, independent inquiry and appropriate compensation; a criminal complaint can also be considered if the actual language of the letter establishes the ingredients of the relevant BNS offences. ….Generated through AI and edited.