The government has amended the Information Technology (IT) rules to allow for the Home Secretary or other bureaucrats in the Centre to issue directions to destroy digital records of interception or decrypt information. So far, the power lied with security agencies, such as law enforcement bodies. The change will broaden powers of the Centre to issue directions to destroy digital evidence. In a gazette notification on Monday, the IT Ministry said that it was amending Section 23 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009 by substituting “security agency” with the words “competent authority and the security agency”. The Rule 23 of this law states that every record, including electronic records pertaining to directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of information and of intercepted or monitored or decrypted information shall be destroyed by the security agency in every six months except in a case where such information is required, or likely to be required for functional requirements.
