Snooping order to face court scrutiny

new delhi — Two public interest litigations were filed before the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the constitutional validity of the Centres order empowering intelligence agencies and Delhi Police to snoop on all computers, seeking the quashing of the December 20 order.

The petitions filed by advocates M.L. Sharma and Amit Sahni, respectively, contend that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order was “illegal, unconstitutional and ultra vires to the law” and expressed apprehension that citizens may be penalised for expressing views opposing those of the government.

The MHA order authorised 10 Central agencies as well as the Delhi Police to “intercept, monitor and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer”.

The order also binds subscribers or service providers or any person in charge of the computer resource to extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies and a failure to do so is penalised with seven-year imprisonment and fine.

The petition by Sahni said the MHA order was a “blanket order” and made without any reasoning as mandated by the Information and Technology (IT) Act.

“Every citizen cannot be suspected as a criminal and the objective of passing the order is to have a surveillance country,” said the petition.