The Delhi High Court (HC) is going to determine who owns The central ecosystem of Digi Yatra, a digital platform that provides biometric entry and passenger processing at multiple airports.
For clarification: On October 29, 2025, Justice Subramonium Prasad prepared the issues for the trial of a commercial dispute between Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) and software developer Data Evolve Solutions Pvt Ltd.
The court will consider:
- Does DYF own the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem under clause 6.5 of the Minimum Viable Product Agreement (MVA) dated 17 November 2021?
- If so, does DYF also own the intellectual property rights or other rights in the software and services created by Data Evolve?
- Has Data Evolve violated any rights owned by DYF?
- Has DYF misappropriated any intellectual property belonging to Data Evolve?
It should be noted that the next time the case will be transferred to the Joint Registrar on December 15, 2025.
Background
Digi Yatra is a biometric platform to facilitate airport entry that uses facial recognition technology. Meanwhile, DYF, Chapter 8 a non-profit organization established under the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Digi Yatra Policy, 2021 operates this platform. Please note that the fund does not receive state funding.
The Airports Authority of India holds a 26% stake, while international airports in Cochin, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi have 14.8% ownership each.
May 21, 2021 DYF held the starting call to select a developer for the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem. Hyderabad-based cloud services company Data Evolve was chosen. Consequently, the parties signed the MVA in November 2021 and the Letter of Intent (LoI) in April 2023.
Since its rollout, the platform has faced scrutiny regarding data handling and technical controls. In early 2024, users were asked to uninstall the old Digi Yatra app and install the new one as part of backend changes. However, the earlier program was published under a package related to Data Evolve, raising questions about the extent of the developer’s access to data and involvement in Digi Yatra’s system architecture.
Notably, the move comes after the arrest of Avinash Kamiredy of Data Evolve in the Andhra Pradesh embezzlement case. However, the Digi Yatra Foundation claims that Data Evolve does not have access to personal data of passengers and that there is no central repository of user data.
Respective positions of the parties in the litigation
DYF declares that MVA transfers ownership of all software, modifications and derivative works developed for the project to the Foundation. It claims that Data Evolve only retained the rights to the software it created on its own prior to the agreement.
Meanwhile, Data Evolve says it owns the underlying software architecture and claims DYF withheld payments. Interestingly, the former has gone to court in Hyderabad to protect what it describes as its intellectual property.
Temporary ban and transfer of the platform in March 2024
In March 2024, DYF approached the Delhi HC seeking continuity of services and protection of passenger data. At the time, Judge Pratiba M. Singh issued a temporary injunction barring Data Evolve from using, transferring or copying passenger data.
Announcements
The court found Digi Yatra to be a critical infrastructure used by millions of travelers and noted that public interest could be affected by the disruption. Therefore, the court ordered Data Evolve to hand over:
- Access to the server and the application
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) source code.
- Blockchain source code
- Domain certificates
- App store controls
- SMS gateway credentials
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) credentials and other keys
Notably, IT officials from the Delhi HC monitored the transmission at the Data Evolve premises in Hyderabad and the Digi Yatra Foundation maintains operational control as per the order.
Why it matters
The ownership dispute comes as Digi Yatra continues to look into data governance, user consent and transparency. The application migration in 2024 raised unresolved questions about what happened to the data associated with the old application, whether Data Evolve’s previous system architecture allowed any level of access, and how biometric verification data passes during authentication.
Moreover, a technologist who goes by the name “kingslyj” on X (formerly Twitter) previously studied earlier versions of the Digi Yatra app and found that they interacted with the cloud infrastructure associated with Data Evolve.
Furthermore, Digi Yatra operates outside the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) and was launched before the Indian Parliament even brought up the country’s digital data protection legislation. And while the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 has received presidential assent, the law is not currently in effect.
Elsewhere, DYF said it intends to expand Digi Yatra to a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model for use in hotels, office complexes and examination centres. This proposed expansion raises questions about the governance, accountability, and oversight of a private, nonprofit organization that implements facial recognition-based verification at scale.
Ultimately, the Delhi HC’s decision in the case will determine who controls the platform’s codebase, data architecture and development path. This in turn will define how Digi Yatra is managed and how user data is handled as the system evolves to potentially expand beyond the aviation sector.
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