Government relaxes rules for installation of Aarogya Setu app by employees

The Indian government has eased the rules regarding the installation of Aarogya Setu, the government sponsored contract tracing app, by employees. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ (“MHA”) vide its order dated May 1, 2020 (“May 1st Order”) had provided that it is mandatory for employees of both public and private sector enterprises to install Aarogya Setu on their mobile phones. The burden of ensuring compliance with this rule was placed on the Head of each organisation. The MHA’s order dated 17.05.2020 (“May 17th Order”) relaxes this burden and provides that employers should, on a best effort basis, ensure that Aargoya Setu is installed by all employees having compatible mobile phones. Further, as per the third recital to the May 17th Order, all orders passed by the MHA’s National Executive Committee (“NEC”) under Section 10(2)(l) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, other than those specifically mentioned in the guidelines to the May 17th Order, shall cease to have effect from May 18, 2020. Therefore, the May 1st Order, which was also issued under Section 10(2)(l) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, has ceased to have effect from May 18, 2020. This update has been contributed by Vinod Joseph (Partner) and Protiti Basu (Associate).