Supreme Court's 'snoop' notice to Centre
New Delhi, Jan 14 (IBNS): Supreme Court on Monday gave the Centre six weeks to file its reply to petitions that claim the home ministry's order to give investigating agencies sweeping powers to intercept and monitor data on computers amounts to "snooping".
The petitioners claim the order is against the right to privacy.
"The order by the Home Ministry violates privacy and we so wanted a stay on it. The court has issued notice to the Home Ministry... After six weeks the Supreme Court will look into our prayer on staying the notification," lawyer Shreya Singhal, one of the petitioners, told NDTV.
On December 20, the government gave 10 central agencies the powers of "interception, monitoring and decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer".
These agencies are the CBI, the IB, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, National Investigation Agency, Research and Analysis Wing and the Delhi Police Commissioner. The armed forces’ Directorate of Signal Intelligence will also have this power for its operations in Jammu and Kashmir, North-East and Assam, said reports.
The order drew widespread criticism from various quarters.
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