Governance over-reach

Surveillance must require authorisation from a magistrate

The Union home ministry has authorised 10 central agencies involved in security and intelligence to intercept, monitor and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received, or stored in any computer resource”. The issue is certainly not specific to the present government, as this power is claimed under Section 69 of the controversial Information Technology Rules of 2009 — other parts of which have been read down by the courts. The home ministry has since claimed that “no new powers have been conferred to any of the security or law enforcement agencies”, and that each case will continue to be approved by