SC sets up committee on norms for issuing SIM cards

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today set up a joint expert panel to recommend the procedure for the telecom firms for properly identifying the customers before issuing SIM cards to them.

A bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia said the panel comprising officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) will submit its report to the government within three months.

The bench passed the order on a plea by one Avishek Goenka seeking its direction to the government to frame guidelines for telecom firms for issuing SIM cards.

He further alleged the verification norms were necessary in view of the recent probe in terror attacks pointing towards the use of mobile phones the connections for which were given on the basis of fake documents.

He had pointed out that both in Mumbai and Delhi blasts, the probe had reached to the conclusion that the cellular phones used by the accused were operating with SIM cards, secured on the basis of bogus documents.