The trouble
with big brother’s eye in India is that there are no
laws that can control or punish any illegal or unconstitutional
e-surveillance, phone tapping, etc in India. The outdated and
colonial laws are not only deficient but are also going against the
provisions of Indian constitution.
There is no doubt that big
brother must not overstep the limits prescribed by Indian
constitution. Presently, the big
brother watches in India without any fear and
constitutional concerns.
Civil
liberties in India and technological revolution are
considered mutually exhaustive in India. Initiatives like
surveillance
of Internet traffic in India are executed without any
procedural safeguards and constitutional rights. E-surveillance
in India is presently done with virtually no legal
framework. Whatever rules that have been framed in this regard by
Indian government, they are clearly violating the constitutional
freedoms and rights.
As a matter of fact, civil
liberties protection in cyberspace in India have been
totally ignored and false claims of national security are raised to
suppress civil liberties in India.
According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal
expert of Asia and managing partner of Perry4Law
and CEO of PTLB,
Surveillance
of Internet Traffic in India is one of the top priorities
of Indian Government. Now E-Surveillance is proposed to be expanded
to even mobile infrastructure. The cell
site location based e-surveillance in India is also in
contemplation. Cell
site data location laws in India and privacy issues are
once again bypassed for this proposal. Even the E-Surveillance
Policy of India is missing that can provide some
safeguards against Illegal and Unconstitutional E-Surveillance in
India, informs Praveen Dalal.
If we analyse projects like Aadhar
project of India, central
monitoring system project of India, etc it is clear that
they are primarily intended to strengthen the e-surveillance
capabilities of India without and constitutional safeguards. For long
time India has been suppressing civil liberties in India cyberspace
and it is high time to question Indian government in this regard.
