For CDR, Intel will need Home Secretary nod; Home, telecom ministry finalise changes

NEW DELHI: The Centre plans to amend the law to regulate requisition of call detail records by central intelligence agencies from telecom operators. This follows the case where private snoopers obtained CDRs of BJP leader Arun Jaitley.


The ministries of Home and Telecom are jointly finalising an amendment to the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, to include CDRs in the ambit of the law which will make sure that central intelligence agencies would have to obtain permission of the Union Home Secretary to requisition CDRs from telecom operators. “We have asked the telecom department to address the issue,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told ET.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on March 1, after there was a furore over CDRs of Jaitley being accessed by a private detective, Shinde had admitted gaps in law on CDRs. “While there is a law for intercepting telephones, there is no such thing for CDR. Jaitley’s case was not the monitoring of telephone conversation (phone tapping), but accessing of CDR,” Shinde had told Parliament. A Home Ministry official explained that while the police relies on a provision in the Criminal Procedure Code to requisition CDRs from telecom operators, central intelligence agencies like IB, RAW and National Technical Research Organization have no provision under the Indian Telegraph Act to specifically ask permission from the Home Ministry for CDRs.

This has led to a rising number of phone tap requests. “Indian Telegraph Rules are silent on CDRs. So when an intelligence agency actually requires only CDRs, it has no option but to ask for permission to tap the phone,” the ministry official said.