Data evolve accuses KPMG of illegally cloning Digi Yatra App in Delhi High Court

New Delhi: Data Evolve Solutions has informed the Delhi High Court that international consulting firm KPMG had paid an unauthorised visit to its Hyderabad plant and duplicated the Digi Yatra application. The company claimed that a cloned version was then implemented in 28 airports against the four that the company had agreed to do. This assertion came up in the debate on the inclusion of new matters into the pending legal wrangle between Data Evolve and the Digi Yatra Foundation (DYF) as to the ownership of the Digi Yatra platform.

Justice Subramonium Prasad raised an inquiry into the grounds of every new issue suggested by Data Evolve. He asked the company to identify the specifications of where the allegations had been mentioned in the initial complaint. According to the Court, the framing of the issues can be made only when the statements in the plaint and the answers in the written statement are directly coincident. The judge also stated that matters concerning non-payment should be taken through the due process of the law, which involves submitting a counterclaim with court fees.

The Court determined that the other six issues that Data Evolve had asked the Court to consider were either already covered by the issues that were framed on October 29 or were not the result of the pleadings whatsoever. DYF has also been allowed time to answer the plea and the case will be next heard on December 10. DYF too has made its own request for more issues.

The Court previously posed four major questions that revolve around the possession of the Digi Yatra Central Ecosystem, the right to the software developed within the Minimum Viable Agreement (MVA), and whether one party violated or abused intellectual property. DYF, a Section 8 company established by the Digi Yatra Policy of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, chose Data Evolve in one of its challenges to startups in 2021. In late 2023, DYF questioned the alleged diversion of funds and ceased its relations with the developer.

Data Evolve asserts that DYF never paid them and that it owns the core software architecture. It has gone to a court in Hyderabad in order to defend its purported IP. In March 2024, the Delhi High Court issued an interim order forbidding the Data Evolve company to access or copy the Digi Yatra passenger data.