The Supreme Court has taken custody of the Niira Radia tapes at a time when the Government has begun to expand its powers to tap phones and strengthen accountability.
Sources have confirmed to The Sunday Express that the Union Home Ministry has initiated a proposal to ask all state governments to provide details of telephone and email interception they have carried out. And to ensure the effectiveness of the Oversight Committee on electronic surveillance � meant to function in New Delhi and all state capitals.
Home Ministry officials say that roughly 6,000 telephone numbers (mostly mobile) are on the current interception list and with e-mail communications becoming vital, around 500-600 email IDs as well.
But officials said the feedback the Home Ministry has received from at least three or four states, including West Bengal, was that either the Oversight Committee was never set up or had become defunct. These states have rushed to set up these committees.
Since the 1997 apex court ruling on telephone tapping, there exists a well-oiled mechanism in New Delhi for authorising and monitoring surveillance of telephones and emails. While the Home Secretary is known to reserve a daily 30-minute slot to sign electronic surveillance authorisations, the Cabinet Secretary convenes a weekly (mostly Monday afternoon) meeting of the Oversight Committee to review each and every intercept order signed in North Block. The Law Secretary and IT Secretary are members of the Committee.
As per the apex court�s guidelines and the system evolved by the Government, designated agencies � the Intelligence Bureau has the largest number of requests � have to state in writing why the interception is required. The Home Secretary is required to sign off each request as �allowed� which reportedly is the case in a vast majority of requests. Orders are then issued to the service provider to put the line under interception.
Incidentally, each interception order signed by the Home Secretary contains a declaration that the listed numbers do not belong to any Member of Parliament or Legislative Assembly.
While this is the daily procedure being followed in the Home Ministry, there are some exceptions.
In case the Home Secretary is out of New Delhi for a prolonged period, a senior Ministry official is authorized to sign interception orders with a copy of that authorization also sent to the Cabinet Secretary.
There is also a provision for immediate interception being permitted in case of an emergency situation with the agency given 72 hours to obtain the Home Secretary�s authorization.
In the Cabinet Secretariat, members of the Oversight Committee told The Sunday Express that between 100-150 interception orders passed by the Home Secretary were scrutinized by each member at every meeting.
Again, a majority of the orders are �approved� and only in very few cases, queries are marked by a Committee member if reasons for interception appear unconvincing.
In case an agency has asked for a further 30-day extension of intercepting a telephone line or email address (as was done in the Radia case), it has to provide a snapshot of useful intelligence or information collected and also clarify on why the extension is necessary.