New rules to operate in phone tapping
New Delhi, Mar 7 : The government has finally decided to end the phone tapping controversies and misuses of the same by rewriting the rules for tapping, said reports. At present, the Union Home Secretary in Delhi and Home Department's Secretary in states grant the permit to tap a phone upto a period of one month at a time.
However, intelligence and enforcement agencies in special cases, can tap a phone for upto a week without any clearance from the Home Ministry.
The new rules however curtail such discretionary powers with the change in the relevant sections of the Telegraph Act.
According to reports, a new Central Monitoring System or CMS is being set up in Delhi and will be activated within a month's time.
It will be operated by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and is a part of the Department of Telecom.
While there will be no requirement of authorization letters to be shared with cellphone providers, requests for phone taps and clearances will be processed through the new system. The process of phone tapping will be iniatiated as soon as the permission is registered.