40,456

Under Section 5 2 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Central and State Government or any officer specially authorised by the Central Government or any state government can intercept messages if it is so necessary in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order and for preventing incitment to the commission of an offence. This power is exercised by the Union Home Secretary.

Although the figure of 40,456 tappings was provided by the Internal Security division of the Home Ministry to Rajya Sabha MP Arun Jaitley under the RTI Act, the Home Ministry did not disclose individual cases of phone tapping seeking cover of Section 8 of the Act.

While all these lines were tapped with authorisation, there have been instances of illegal tappings by overenthusiatic security agencies and private entities as highlighted by the Amar Singh phone tapping case.

shishir.guptaexpressindia.com