SC throws out PIL over US internet snooping

The Supreme Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking action against nine internet companies for sharing information about Indian citizens with US intelligence agencies.

The PIL filed last week named Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo among the nine, and insisted that the rights of internet users are protected. The action came after headline-making reports of US security agencies accessing Indians' internet data (See: SC to hear PIL over NSA snooping on Indian data).

The apex court said it cannot entertain the petition as no Indian agency is involved. It advised the petitioner, former dean of the law faculty of Delhi University S N Singh, to move any other forum for seeking remedy against any violation of the right to privacy.

The apex court also said it cannot direct parliament to enact law to safeguard the privacy of citizens against such snooping.

In his plea, Singh had alleged that large-scale spying by the US authorities is detrimental to India's national security; and urged the apex court to intervene in the matter.

He had claimed that the internet companies sharing information with foreign authorities are guilty of "breach" of contract and violation of right to privacy.

He had sought directions to the Centre to "take urgent steps to safeguard the government's sensitive internet communications" which are being kept outside India in US servers and are "unlawfully intruded upon by US intelligence agencies.

The union government had earlier on 11 June expressed surprise and concern over the snooping and said it will seek information and details from the US over reports that India was the fifth-most tracked country by American intelligence, which used a secret data-mining programme called 'PRISM'' to monitor internet data worldwide. (aslo see: Whistleblower behind leak on US government phone snooping, Edward Snowden goes public).