The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has been demanding surveillance and phone tapping powers for long. It reiterated its demand when the central monitoring system was launched by Indian government for facilitating telephone tapping in India.

Now the Indian cabinet has allowed SEBI to monitoring investors’ call records and conduct searches at companies suspected of wrongdoing. Previously the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) of India was granted more powers to carry out investigations abroad and to deal with white color crimes and serious frauds in India.

The government is also planning to bring a fraudulent multi level marketing companies’ regulation in India. It is also contemplating blocking of multi level marketing (MLM) companies website in India.

The problem with this entire arrangement is that we have no constitutionally sound lawful interception law in India. In India there is no requirement to obtain a court warrant to engage in e-surveillance and eavesdropping. Further, with the introduction of central monitoring system of India, the scope for judicial intervention has been absolutely ruled out.

SEBI has been expecting the right to monitor phone call data without a court’s intervention to investigate claims of insider trading and manipulation in the country’s capital markets. And its wish seems to have been granted by the cabinet. The cabinet also approved amending the securities law to give SEBI a mandate to regulate “chit funds”.

Recently the United States FCC voted for a declaratory ruling that all carriers must safeguard the private data in their customers’ mobile devices. However, India is treading on a wrong path of civil liberty violations and has failed to maintain a balance between civil liberties and national security requirements.

Even the national cyber security policy (NCSP) of India 2013 has failed to protect privacy rights in India. In these circumstances privacy protection in India must be ensured through self defence mechanisms.

Before SEBI exercises any e-surveillance and call records details, it must ensure that it is not violating any laws of India in this regard. Similarly, the proposed privacy law of India must also be enacted as soon as possible that has been ignored by Indian government for decades.