Has Parliament Of India Become Redundant?

Indian constitution provides, to a great extent, separation of powers between executive, legislature and judiciary. However, of late this separation of power has ceased to exist in India. The balance has been disturbed as parliament of India is not performing the tasks assigned to it by Indian constitution.

India is perhaps the only country of the World whose Agencies and Instrumentalities are working without any law supporting their existence, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of new Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India. Whether it is the Aadhar Project/ UID Project, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies of India, etc none of them are “Practically Governed” by any Legal Framework and Parliamentary Scrutiny, informs Dalal.

Instead of increasing the transparency and parliamentary scrutiny, India is further making these agencies more unaccountable and lawless. The right to information act 2005 (RTI Act 2005) is the sole transparency law of India that needs further amendments and strengthening. However, the proposed right to information rules 2010 instead of strengthening the RTI Act, 2005 took steps that are retrograde in nature.

Whether it is Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or Intelligence Agencies of India, none of them are presently Accountable to Parliament of India, informs Dalal. This casts a doubt about the Impartiality and Transparency of these Agencies, suggests Dalal.

The latest to add to this list of doubts is the proposal to exclude CBI, national investigation authority of India (NIA) and national intelligence grid (Natgrid) from the applicability of RTI Act, 2005. The constitutional validity of national investigation agency act, 2008 (NIA 2008) is still doubtful and CBI and Natgrid are not governed by any law at all. Even the proposed central monitoring system of India is without any parliamentary oversight.

In these circumstances it can be safely said that Indian Parliament is slightly better than a non operational one. It does not conduct any relevant business these days and even if it does not operate at all, not much difference would be there.

Are Indian Parliamentarians listening or has Indian Constitution been “Bypassed” for surrendering all its “Constitutional Powers” to its Executive Branch and Bureaucrats?, asks Dalal. Perhaps, the concept of “Separation of Power” no longer exists under Indian Constitution, says Dalal.

Why Aadhar Project And UIDAI Are Dangerous

It seems Google is still facing the technical problems as its news servers are giving a 503 error. Despite our posting this article twice, it failed to appear at Google news. While Google's Blogger platofm says that everything is alright, it seems many technical issues have yet to be resolve by it before Blogger is finally back.

Google’s Blogger platform has recently faced a technical glitch due to data corruption. This resulted in inability to post to Blogger platforms as well as deletion of some recent posts and comment. With the diligent efforts of Google, not only Blogger is back but even the posts have been restored.

Our citizen journalism platform is also Blogger based. This may be reason why our post titled “the dangers of Aadhar project and UIDAI” did not appear in the Google’s News segment. We are posting the same once again for our readers. Any inconvenience is regretted.

Unique identification project (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is always portrayed as a welfare scheme. In reality, Aadhar project and UIDAI have evil intentions. In fact, Aadhar project and UIDAI are the most evil projects of India till now.

What is more surprising is why this e-surveillance and big brother project has not been scrapped by the Prime Minister’s office (PMO). In this interview of Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based ICT Law Firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court Lawyer, he has shared his opinion and concerns regarding Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Q 1. Is India ready for a controversial project like Aadhar?

A 1. In my personal opinion, India is not yet ready for either Aadhar Project/UID Project or Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). In fact, both Aadhar and UIDAI are “Highly Undesirable” at this stage. Aadhar and UIDAI must be preceded by a Constitutionally Sound Legal Framework and Parliamentary Oversight. Both of these are missing presently making it an “Unconstitutional Project”.

Q 2. What is the process of making a constitutionally sound law in India?

A 2. Constitutionally preparation of a Legislation/Bill is the duty of Indian Government and it must be passed by the Parliament of India. In this case, an authority like UIDAI is suggesting the Bill that (UIDAI) itself is devoid of any Constitutional Validity. Indian Government must come up with its own Bill on Aadhar Project as even the Bill by UIDAI is mere “Eyewash” and does not make much difference. Even if it is passed by Parliament of India, the Unconstitutional Nature of the Aadhar Project and UIDA would remain the same.

Q-3. What are the serious concerns that have been ignored by Indian Government, UIDAI and Indian Cabinet?

A-3 I found it really surprising the way the Bill prepared by UIDAI was cleared by Cabinet and introduced in the Parliament. Many issues, including Profiling, Privacy Safeguards, Civil Liberties Protection, E-Surveillance, etc have been totally neglected by UIDAI and Cabinet and perhaps would be ignored by the Parliament of India as well.

Q 4. How do you see the present activities of Aadhar project and UIDAI?

A 4. The present exercise of taking Biometric Details of Indians is simply “Unconstitutional”. A Project and Authority without any Legal Sanction and Parliamentary Oversight cannot indulge in these activities on such a mass scale. I believe the Government of India is violating various Civil Liberties of Indian though Aadhar Project and UIDAI by making it, Directly and Indirectly, Relevant and Mandatory.

Q-5. Is Aadhar project and UIDAI still not governed by any legal framework and what are the recent developments in this regard?

A 5 Yes. Till now the position has not changed. Rather it has become worst where the District like Mysore has made UID Number Mandatory for various Public Services even though UIDAI claims it to be Optional. Practically UID never was, and never will be, Optional.

Q 6. What are the possible Civil Liberty violations that Indians can face in near future?

A 6. There are great chances that Biometric Details of Indian would be shared with Intelligence Agencies of India and Law Enforcement Agencies of India. Projects like National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc would love to utilise these Biometric Details.

The Dangers Of Aadhar Project And UIDAI

Unique identification project (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is always portrayed as a welfare scheme. In reality, Aadhar project and UIDAI have evil intentions. In fact, Aadhar project and UIDAI are the most evil projects of India till now.

What is more surprising is why this e-surveillance and big brother project has not been scrapped by the Prime Minister’s office (PMO). In this interview of Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based ICT Law Firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court Lawyer, he has shared his opinion and concerns regarding Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Q 1. Is India ready for a controversial project like Aadhar?

A 1. In my personal opinion, India is not yet ready for either Aadhar Project/UID Project or Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). In fact, both Aadhar and UIDAI are “Highly Undesirable” at this stage. Aadhar and UIDAI must be preceded by a Constitutionally Sound Legal Framework and Parliamentary Oversight. Both of these are missing presently making it an “Unconstitutional Project”.

Q 2. What is the process of making a constitutionally sound law in India?

A 2. Constitutionally preparation of a Legislation/Bill is the duty of Indian Government and it must be passed by the Parliament of India. In this case, an authority like UIDAI is suggesting the Bill that (UIDAI) itself is devoid of any Constitutional Validity. Indian Government must come up with its own Bill on Aadhar Project as even the Bill by UIDAI is mere “Eyewash” and does not make much difference. Even if it is passed by Parliament of India, the Unconstitutional Nature of the Aadhar Project and UIDA would remain the same.

Q-3. What are the serious concerns that have been ignored by Indian Government, UIDAI and Indian Cabinet?

A-3 I found it really surprising the way the Bill prepared by UIDAI was cleared by Cabinet and introduced in the Parliament. Many issues, including Profiling, Privacy Safeguards, Civil Liberties Protection, E-Surveillance, etc have been totally neglected by UIDAI and Cabinet and perhaps would be ignored by the Parliament of India as well.

Q 4. How do you see the present activities of Aadhar project and UIDAI?

A 4. The present exercise of taking Biometric Details of Indians is simply “Unconstitutional”. A Project and Authority without any Legal Sanction and Parliamentary Oversight cannot indulge in these activities on such a mass scale. I believe the Government of India is violating various Civil Liberties of Indian though Aadhar Project and UIDAI by making it, Directly and Indirectly, Relevant and Mandatory.

Q-5. Is Aadhar project and UIDAI still not governed by any legal framework and what are the recent developments in this regard?

A 5 Yes. Till now the position has not changed. Rather it has become worst where the District like Mysore has made UID Number Mandatory for various Public Services even though UIDAI claims it to be Optional. Practically UID never was, and never will be, Optional.

Q 6. What are the possible Civil Liberty violations that Indians can face in near future?

A 6. There are great chances that Biometric Details of Indian would be shared with Intelligence Agencies of India and Law Enforcement Agencies of India. Projects like National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc would love to utilise these Biometric Details.

Modernisation Of Police Force Of India

This is a “Guest Column” by Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and leading techno-legal expert of India. In this article, Mr. Praveen Dalal has discussed the requirements of modernisation of police force of India. He asserts that ambitious projects like CCTNS, Natgrid, NCTC, Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc requires techno legal expertise. Law enforcement agencies of India must be aware of both technical as well as legal requirements in order to derive maximum benefits out of these projects, asserts Praveen Dalal.

No time in the history of India we needed modernisation of police forces of India than now. Fortunately, there is no dearth of financial resources as even the proposed 2011 budget has provided reasonably good amount for the same. Home Ministry of India recently received a large sum of money from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The same would be used for many national security projects of India.

Some of the national security projects that are presently launched by Home Ministry include National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project of India (CCTNS Project), Central Monitoring System (CMS) of India, etc. It does not mean that Indian police force would be modernised and made more efficient immediately. Even there is no guarantee of the same for the next five years till these promises are supported by a political will to execute the same.

The indications are positive and so may be the outcomes. The need of the hour is to purse the commitment till the same is accomplished. Many crucial projects in India have failed because though they were started with the right planning and commitment yet till the end neither planning nor commitment survived.

India cannot afford to adopt this lax strategy at this crucial period of time when cyber crimes and cyber attacks, terrorism and cyber terrorism, organised crimes, trans border crimes, white collar crimes, etc are plaguing India.

With the active use of technology, these crimes have further been made difficult to trace as well as to be prosecuted. For instance, it took Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) four months to ascertain the basic level information about the attackers who defaced CBI’s website.

At this stage it would be imperative to mention the importance of suitable training to law enforcement manpower. The ambitious projects CCTNS, NATGRID, Unique Identification Project of India (UID Project), etc cannot survive in the long run in the absence of suitable Policies, Trainings and Legal Framework.

Equally important are the issues of Legal Empowerment of Law Enforcement Machinery in India. India is negligent in formulating good laws governing the law enforcement machinery. In the absence of good legislative provisions, the performance of police force cannot be expected to be good. It is only now that the Central Bureau of Investigation Act 2010 and Delhi Police Act have been drafted. They would be presented in the Parliament of India and may become enforceable law one day. Besides, political interferences in the day to day functioning of police forces in India must be minimised.

With positive hints being given by Indian Government, we can expect some good legislative steps by Parliament of India in the forthcoming session. A good law bringing transparency, accountability, flexibility and autonomy to police forces in India is the urgent need of the hour. I wish Indian Parliament all the best in this regard.

Centralised ICT Control System Of India

This is the updated version of my previously published article. In my previous article, Praveen Dalal, the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India and Managing Partner of Perry4Law, suggested the establishment of a Centralised ICT Control System in India. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) accepted his suggestion and established the Central Monitoring System (CMS) of India. The article has been revised and updated keeping in mind the subsequent developments.

The need of a centralised ICT control system was very pressing. The decentralised nature of e-surveillance and lawful interceptions has posed various practical difficulties before the Central government. The DOT and Home Ministry of India realised these practical difficulties and established a CMS for India.

The central monitoring system is a centralised mechanism that can assist in lawful interception of communications from landline, mobile and Internet. This would help the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India to effectively analyse ICT traffic for intelligence inputs.

According to Praveen Dalal, “Intelligence Agencies of a country play an important role in its Internal and External Security. There must be a “Centralised ICT Control System” to govern Intelligence Agencies if there are more than one such Agencies. If there are numerous Intelligence Agencies working for different Government Departments, there is a possibility of “Lack of Coordination” and “Inadequate and Inappropriate Information Sharing”. Nothing can be more beneficial than a “Centralised ICT Control Centre” for the Indian National and Internal Security.

Presently, intelligence agencies of India are operating in a decentralised manner. There is no centralised authority or Ministry that can coordinate or collaborate between different intelligence agencies. Further, there is no Parliamentary oversight of these intelligence agencies as well. This is also one of the reasons why the national counter terrorism centre (NCTC) of India has still not been established.

The Intelligence Infrastructure of India needs to be rejuvenated and streamlined, opines Praveen Dalal. Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram must consider these suggestions seriously and start working in this direction as soon as possible.

CMS As The Internet Kill Switch Of India

Internet censorship in India has increased tremendously and that also without a constitutionally sound lawful interception law in India. Internet censorship requires a good balance between civil liberties and law and order and national security requirements. Presently, the approach of Indian government is leaning heavily towards e-surveillance and Internet censorship without much regard to civil liberties of Indians in cyberspace.

Take the example of Internet kill switch (IKS) that has been in limelight these days. Lots of people are talking about IKS without knowing where it exists and how it can be used. The Indian equivalent of IKS can be found in the form of central monitoring system (CMS), which is a centralised mechanism that can assist in lawful interception of communications from landline, mobile and Internet. Although it can be used only if there is a lawful interception law in India yet it seems to have been tested recently without any lawful interception law in India at place.

According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal expert of India and managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law, the present Cyber Law of India is incorporated in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000), as amended by the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008). It also carries provisions regarding Internet Censorship and Website Blocking but without any “Procedural Safeguards and Guidelines”. This amounts to taking away “Fundamental Rights” of Indians without Reasonable Restrictions and without prescribing any “Procedural Safeguards” to prevent use of this abusive power, says Dalal.

Recently the Blogspot domain (hosted services) and sub domain (free blogs) were systematically blocked by many of the internet service providers (ISPs) of India. Even Google did not give any reason as to the cause of this outage. Google had enough time to analyse the traffic reports and respond back yet it preferred to keep a mum due to commercial interests it has in Indian market.

This outage may be an “experimental blockage” that took place at the point where Internet traffic enters and exits India. This exercise may have different names. Some may call it an Internet kill switch whereas others may call it a centralised monitoring system. At this stage it is not the nomenclature that is important but the need to put measures and safeguards to prevent its abuse in India.

So next time when we discuss about Internet kill switch of India, we must keep in mind the central monitoring system project of Indian government. If Indian government is not committed to safeguard our civil liberties, we must use self defence measures to protect our civil liberties in cyberspace.

Internet Censorship In India Has Increased

Internet has been under constant and furious attacks all over the world. The fact is that Internet is under potential threat these days. The threat is not only from malicious users, rouge nations and automated viruses and worms but also from our own governments.

Take the example of Internet kill switch (IKS) that has been increasingly seen as a solution to cyber threats. But IKS is no solution to cyber security threats. Rather it is a remedy worst than the malady and would prove dangerous in the long term.

The only purpose of IKS is to strengthen the e-surveillance powers of governments and its agencies. This is the reason why we must have anti Internet kill switch measures at hand.

Internet censorship is a result of this desire to control the Internet and online activities of netizens. Internet censorship has drastically increased in India in recent times. With adoption of projects like central monitoring system (CMS) by Indian government, this is quiet clear. Like other projects, CMS also is not under parliamentary scrutiny and this raises serious civil liberties violations issues in India.

Recently Blogspot was blocked in India once again under an “experimental blocking” exercise. It is believed that the same has been done using the CMS of India. This exercise was undertaken to analyse the websites blocking capabilities of Indian government and its agencies.

India has a draconian but cyber criminals’ friendly cyber law in the form of information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). It was amended in 2008 to confer unregulated e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers to Indian government and its agencies. The present cyber law of India is an unconstitutional one in the absence of procedural safeguards that can prevent these abusive draconian powers under the IT Act 2000. It requires an urgent repeal.

If at all India is serious about national security and cyber security, it must formulate a national security policy of India. This policy must cover issues like national security, cyber security, internal security, external security, etc. It must also provide constitutionally sound guidelines regarding cyber security and national security.

Presently, e-surveillance, phone tapping, interceptions, etc are not done under a constitutionally sound law. In fact, India has no constitutionally valid phone tapping and lawful interception law so far.

If India wishes to safeguard its cyberspace, Internet censorship is no solution. Rather, Internet censorship does not give positive results and always gives a bad taste afterwards. India must seriously consider this aspect and come up with effective laws and policies regarding lawful and constitutional regulation of Internet in India.

PMO Is Supporting Unconstitutional Aadhar Project And UIDAI

Unique identification project of India (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is one of the most offensive and undesirable project of India. It is not supported by any legal framework and is outside Parliamentary scrutiny. This makes it illegal and unconstitutional.

Despite these serious shortcomings and unconstitutional nature, both Aadhar project and unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) managed to survive so long due to the simple reason that our Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Planning Commission have extended their “blind and unthoughtful support” to Aadhar project and UIDAI.

The truth is that Indian government and UIDAI are fooling Indian citizens regarding the nature and purpose of Aadhar project. The real purpose of Aadhar project is to make it the most offensive and unaccountable tool of e-surveillance.

Presently, there is No Parliamentary Oversight of projects like Aadhar/UID, national intelligence grid (Natgrid), criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS), central monitoring system (CMS), etc. If we add biometric data with other data gather by National Census and National Population Register of India and supplement it with projects like Natgrid, CCTNS, CMS, etc, an endemic e-surveillance model is apparent.

This is the reason why Indian government has deliberately failed to enact suitable procedural, constitutional and civil liberty safeguards to prevent abuses by these projects. Even the basic level privacy law in India is missing.

Unfortunately, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has not been considering civil liberties and procedural safeguards while supervising these controversial projects. Even our Parliament has not been performing its legislative businesses these days.

These projects have seriously disturbed the delicate balance of powers between the Executive, Judiciary and Parliament of India. Experts have doubted that Separation of Power no longer exists in India. With Executive taking control of entire constitutional powers, Parliament and Judiciary are looking helplessly. This is a situation that requires immediate attention lest it is too late to remedy the situation.