Delhi HC seeks MHA response on plea seeking data on electronic surveillance

The CIC in the decision had accepted the MHA stand that the data sought by Gupta has been destroyed.

Gupta in December 2018 filed six RTI applications seeking data related to the interception, monitoring and decryption orders passed by the MHA under the IT Act.

In January 2019, the authorities refused to share the information on grounds of national security. In May 2021, the CIC asked the authorities to re-examine the issue. In August 2021, the authorities said the information was unavailable as records are destroyed every six months in accordance with rules.

While the counsel representing the central government on Tuesday told the court that the copies of the interception orders under The Telegraph Act are deleted every six months in accordance with the norms, Gupta’s counsel submitted that he has been only seeking statistical data on the number of such orders passed.

Gupta in the petition said that the CIC on the one hand admonished the MHA for belatedly raising a plea that information sought is not maintained, yet at the same it accepted this belated plea without appreciating the illegality involved in destruction of information during pendency of RTI proceedings.

“Ld. CIC failed to appreciate that the MHA SOP clearly requires the 10 security and intelligence agencies to prepare a monthly report on the requisitions made for interception and monitoring, authorizations received and information utilised within and outside the agency,” reads the petition.

The petition also contends that the CIC in the same breath has held that the MHA does not hold any aggregate data regarding electronic surveillance but also that it no longer has the data since it is periodically weeded out. “If the data is not maintained, then there is no question of deletion,” states the petition, adding that there has been perpetual shifting of stands of MHA on the information sought by him.