On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to file a counter-affidavit in detail laying out in full the rules and procedure it follows when it comes to telephone interception and surveillance. The Division Bench was considering a petition filed by an NGO which claimed that the government is breaching privacy by illegally tapping phones and storing all data from internet. For the NGO, Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan argued that the Government has just filed a brief affidavit asserting that everything they are doing is legal, but it has failed to react to the particular allegations. The implementation and operation of surveillance systems like as the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA), and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), according to the plea, endangers the right to privacy. In view of the foregoing, the petition requested that the Centre issue permanent orders prohibiting the execution and operation of the surveillance projects.
