Telecom ministry moots up to Rs 2-cr penalty on tapping

NEW DELHI: Amid debates over phone-tapping and making conversations public without authorisation, the telecom ministry has proposed a penalty of up to 2 crore on unlawfully tapping, as against just 500 at present.

In a communique to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed the imposition of a penalty between 1 lakh and 2 crore for breaches under different sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

For breach of 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, the 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 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 (CDRs) have also been proposed. A decision is likely to be taken on these amendments by the end of the coming Budget session of Parliament, says the DoT communication to the PMO.

The move assumes significance in the wake of the Niira Radia tapes and their leakage to the media. In fact, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata criticised the government's "lackadaisical attitude" to the leakage of his tapped telephonic conversations with corporate lobbyist Radia in the Supreme Court