Delhi High Court refuses to direct TRAI to furnish tapping info to mobile user

New Delhi, December 25

The Delhi High Court has set aside an order upholding the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) direction to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to collect and furnish information under RTI proceedings about the alleged tapping of a mobile user’s phone. A Bench headed by Justice Vibhu Bakhru allowed an appeal filed by the telecom regulator against a single-judge order. It said an act of surveillance is carried out on the government’s directions and in the interest of the country’s sovereignty and integrity, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence, and is exempted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Not under affairs of service providers

• The Bench said phone tapping does not fall under the affairs of telecom service providers and noted that the information sought also does not relate to the functions of the TRAI under the law
• An act of surveillance carried out in the interest of the country’s sovereignty and integrity, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order is exempted under the RTI Act, it said

“Any orders passed by the government concerned in relation to the interception, tapping or tracking of a phone are passed when the authorised officer is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence,” the Bench, also comprising Justice Amit Mahajan, said in a recent order.

“In a given case, the disclosure of any such information, therefore, may impede the process of investigation and may be construed to prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security and strategic, scientific and economic interests of the state, relations with foreign states, or lead to the incitement of an offence and would therefore be exempted from disclosure under the terms of Section 8 of the RTI Act,” the Bench concluded. It further said phone tapping does not fall under the affairs of telecom service providers and noted that the information sought also does not relate to the functions of the TRAI under the law.

“Any contrary view would give the authority (TRAI) unbridled power to call for information and interfere with the functions of telecom service providers, and also would not be in consonance with the objects sought to be achieved by the TRAI Act,” the Bench observed. The Delhi HC had, in August 2021, stayed the single-judge order.

Lawyer Kabir Shankar Bose had filed an RTI application for details on whether his phone was being tapped and, if so, by which agency. The telecom regulator had said directions to intercept a phone number are issued only by government officials of certain ranks and stated that such information could not be collated by it and furnished to a consumer or subscriber as it would “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of the nation”.

Bose had to move the CIC as his telecom service provider, Vodafone, had declined his request for information. The company had claimed that it did not fall under the ambit of the RTI Act. Bose had then moved the TRAI, which said it did not have the information he had asked for. The CIC, in its September 12, 2018 order, asked the TRAI to obtain the information from the telecom company and provide it to Bose. The TRAI challenged it in the HC, and the single judge, on November 20, 2018, upheld the CIC’s decision, saying the TRAI has the powers to call for any information or conduct an investigation where it considers it expedient.