Amid a debate over phone-tapping and making conversations public without authorisation, the Telecom Ministry has proposed a penalty of up to Rs 2 crore on unlawfully tapping, as against the prevailing Rs 500.
In a communique to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed a penalty between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 crore for breaches under different sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
For breaching Section 26 of the Act, which prohibits telegraph officers or other officials from making away with or altering, unlawfully intercepting or disclosing messages, or divulging the purport of signals, maximum penalty has been proposed.
As per the existing Act, any breach of this section attracts imprisonment, which may extend up to three years, along with a fine of Rs 500.
The proposed amendment to the Indian Telegraph Act is likely to be tabled in Parliament soon. Amendments to the Indian Telegraph Rules for electronic provision and collection of call data records have also been proposed. A decision was likely to be taken by the end of the Budget session, said the DoT communication.
The move assumes significance in the wake of the Niira Radia tapes and their leakage to the media.
In fact, noted industrialist Ratan Tata criticised the government’s “lackadaisical attitude” to the leakage of his tapped telephonic conversations with corporate lobbyist Radia, alleging it remained least bothered about the violation of an individual’s privacy in the entire episode.
He voiced the criticism in an affidavit filed in the apex court in response to the government’s reply to his petition, seeking protection of his right to privacy, linked to a citizen’s fundamental right to life. Tata’s comments came in the wake of some magazines publishing transcripts of conversations between Radia and several industry leaders, politicians and journalists, which were intercepted by government agencies.
The Tata Group, one of the parties mentioned in the conversations, had sought legal redressal from the publications for making private conversations between individuals public.
