SC tells Centre to prevent misuse of PAN, EPFO data by private firms

The Supreme Court has directed the Union government to consider a representation alleging that private verification entities are misusing sensitive statutory data, including EPFO/UAN records and PAN-linked information. A bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana disposed of the PIL, asking the government to take necessary action within four months. The Court termed private access to sovereign data, given to the government under legislative mandate, and its commercial exploitation as worrisome.

Petitioner Piyush Sharma told the Court that in a test, merely furnishing PAN and UAN to a private verification system returned his complete employment history without any OTP or consent. The petition flagged services like 'EPFO Passbook API' and 'Income Tax Return API', suggesting an unregulated ecosystem enabling commercial verification, moonlighting detection, and labour profiling. The Court said the matter fell within policy domain but required an antidote with expert assistance.