Priority for security over privacy in Bill, only MHA body to tap phones from now

NEW DELHI: National security concerns would override the right to privacy of an individual as the Home Ministry has had its way in the final draft of a Right to Privacy Bill prepared by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) after deliberations for over two years.

To address the issue of unauthorised leakage of information of tapped phones or online accounts, the Home Ministry has separately decided that a Central Monitoring System (CMS), to be operationalised soon for tapping, will be manned by Home Ministry's staff on deputation from Department of Information Technology (DIT) rather than sleuths of the eight designated intelligence agencies.

"The draft of the Right to Privacy Bill is ready. It will now go to the Law Ministry for vetting and subsequently to the Cabinet," minister of personnel V Narayanswamy told ET. This comes even as there is a furore in the US over the revelation of their National Security Agency snooping into phone conversations and social networking accounts worldwide for preventing terror plots.

A comprehensive legislation on privacy in India had been hanging fire since 2011 due to differences between DoPT and Home Ministry. A Home Ministry official told ET that the DoPT has finally "accepted most concerns" of the home ministry. "The proposed law is a mix of the 2011 draft prepared by DoPT and the Justice AP Shah report on Privacy submitted in 2012," a DoPT official said.