Radia fallout: Penalty for unlawful phone taps hiked

To prevent unauthorised telephone tapping, telecom ministry has proposed a hefty penalty of up to Rs2 crore for unlawful tapping, as against the present paltry fine of Rs500.

In a note to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the department of telecommunications (DoT) has proposed the imposition of a penalty between Rs1 lakh and Rs2 crore for breaches under different sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. The department has also favoured a three-year jail term for the guilty.
 
Section 26 of the Act prohibits telegraph officers or other officials from unlawfully intercepting or disclosing messages or divulging the purport of signals. Any breach of this section attracts imprisonment that may extend up to three years, along with a fine of Rs500.

Now the DOT wants to bring an amendment to the Act by increasing the penalty amount. The proposed amendment to the Indian Telegraph Act would likely be tabled in the budget session of Parliament, sources in the DoT told Deccan Herald.

Besides, the DOT also proposed the amendments to the Indian Telegraph Rules for electronic provision and collection of Call Data Records (CDRs) to enable the security agencies to snoop on all communication networks used by public.

The move comes in the wake of the controversy created by the leakage of tapped phone conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia to the media. In fact industrialist Ratan Tata has taken the government to the Supreme Court on the matter, complaining of the ''lackadaisical attitude'' of the government in finding the source of the leak.

 Tata, whose conversations with Radia were among those leaked, also alleged that the government remained least bothered about the violation of an individual's privacy in the entire episode.