No blanket powers given to 10 agencies to snoop: Govt

new delhi — The central government has not given “blanket power” to any agency to intercept information from any computer and they have to strictly adhere to the existing rules and stick to the book while carrying out such action, a senior Home Ministry official said.

There is no new law, no new rules, no new procedure, no new agency, no blanket powers, no blanket authorisation and it is the same law, same rule, same procedure and the same agencies, he said. “There is no change even in a comma or a full stop in the existing rules and regulations,” the official said requesting anonymity.

The December 20 Home Ministry notification, listing the 10 agencies, had set off a political storm with the opposition accusing the government of trying to create a “surveillance state”. The official clarified that the 10 agencies mentioned in the notification were already empowered to intercept electronic communications since 2011.

Further, while listing these agencies

on December 20 this year, the home ministry had reiterated the Standard Operating Procedures of 2011, which mandates that every such interception requires prior approval of the competent authority — the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary.

The central government has been maintaining that the rules for intercepting and monitoring computer

data were framed in 2009 when the Congress-led UPA was in power and its new order only notified the designated agencies which can carry out such action.

“The notification is nothing but a listing sent to the telecom service providers in order to ensure that only authorised and designated agency can go for interception of the communication and there is no misuse by unauthorised agencies or unscrupulous service providers,” the official said.

According to the home ministry official, the number of interception has gone down since 2014 even though the number of mobile phone connections in the country has gone up and is now around 1.20 billion. The number of electronic messages had also grown exponentially.

“The absolute number in interception has gone down even though the number of users has increased manifold. The percentage of interception has gone down even further,” the official said.

The 10 agencies are the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (for Income Tax Department), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, Directorate of Signal Intelligence (in service areas of J-K, North East and Assam) and the Delhi Police. —