New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said it
follows a proper procedure in ordering interception of
telephones and a high-level committee reviews each case
individually before giving its final approval.
Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said all the
interception of phones as well as e-mails follow the
prescribed procedures and the judgement of the Supreme Court
and the rules laid down under the Telegraph Act.
"We not only have the Union Home Secretary and state Home
Secretaries authorising the interception of telephones, we
also have an oversight committee which is headed by the
Cabinet Secretary with Law Secretary and the Telecom Secretary
(as its members)," he said on the sidelines of a function
here.
Pillai said the committee looks after each of the order
passed by the Union Home Secretary or in case of the state by
the state Home Secretary.
"They verify whether the orders were passed as per the
law," he said.
On an average 6,000 to 8,000 telephones are being tapped
by various agencies at any given time after taking permission
from the Union Home Secretary. Besides, around 10,000 more
telephones are intercepted by state governments, Pillai had
recently said.
Pillai`s comments came a day after the affidavit of
Reliance Infocomm before the Supreme Court saying that in 2005
in Delhi, 3588 phones were intercepted by the company. Between
2006 and 2010, the company intercepted 1.51 lakh telephones
across India.
PTI
