A private company providing software services to State departments is not the 'State' under Article 12 of the Constitution, and service contract disputes are not maintainable via Writ Petition, especially when alternative labour grievance resolution mechanisms are already being pursued.

ORDER :

This writ petition is filed by the petitioner seeking the following relief:

“ ... to consider this controversy originating from access of school education data with Aadhar belonging to State Governments in Digital India Team promoted by 1st Respondent and led by 4th Respondent and issue a writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the acts of 1st to 4th Respondents and Microsoft officials against petitioner illegal, arbitrary and contrary to the principles of natural justice, Articles 14, 19, 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India and thereby directing 1st to 4th Respondents to follow due process and to uphold justice and dignity and employee rights denied to petitioner and directing the Good Offices of 6th to 9th Respondents to take cognizance of the criminal actions of 1st to 4th Respondents and Microsoft officials and hold said persons accountable for their criminal deeds and take necessary criminal action against above said persons and to pass ...”

2. The case of the petitioner is that he was employed as permanent, full-time role (‘Blue Badge’ employee) in Digital India team, Cloud and Artificial Intelligence department of Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of respondent No.1 - company and his work location was at Microsoft Campus in Building 3, Gachibowli, Ranga Reddy District, Hyderabad, Telangana. It is stated that petitioner worked with his heart and soul towards the mission of respondent No.1. The Digital India Team where the petitioner worked throughout his tenure at respondent No.1 - company addressed problems in healthcare, school education, agriculture, skilling, Aadhar among others and was regularly taking over work traditionally done by Government departments and officials, in other words, “transferring a department of Government to itself” which is another benchmark classifying Digital India Team as ‘State’.

3. It is submitted that Microsoft Academia Accelerator where the petitioner travelled frequently representing respondent No.1 - company received appreciation from respondent No.4, who was providing valuable practical software development skills for higher education students in Indian Institutes of Technology and also discharging the functions of the ‘State’. It is submitted that the controversial projects where respondent Nos.1 to 4 violated petitioner’s fundamental rights are to improve school grades, academic performance, increase school enrolment, and reduce school dropouts among others. These projects are addressing Right to Education under Article 21A which is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Though, these projects are within the exclusive purview of the Government Departments, they were run by platforms of respondent No.4 and decisions were made for State Government Officials using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (for short ‘AI & ML’) and used by State Project Directors and their reportees from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and also heads of State Governments. Hence, the writ petition is maintainable.

4. The grievance of the petitioner is that he sacrificed his personal life, weekends and health on many occasions to achieve remarkable results in Digital India projects and other initiatives of respondent No.1, in short time. The petitioner stretched his limits and worked under severe resource crunch as management of respondent No.1 including respo