New Delhi, Feb 27 (PTI) Broadband India Discussion board, an industry body that represents main tech corporations like Meta, Google, and others, has questioned the authorized validity of the federal government’s SIM binding mandate, citing a senior counsel’s opinion that termed the route as “ultra vires the mother or father laws” and “unconstitutional”.
In a letter dated February 23 to the Division of Telecom (DoT) secretary Amit Agrawal, BIF highlighted the authorized opinion which concluded that the Telecommunications (Telecom Cyber Safety) Modification Guidelines, 2025, and up to date directives concerning ‘SIM binding’ exceed the authority granted by the mother or father Telecommunications Act of 2023.
The matter pertains to a route issued by the central authorities in November that can guarantee app-based communication providers, the likes of WhatsApp, Sign, Telegram, and others, are constantly linked to a consumer’s energetic SIM card.
In truth, Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, earlier this week, in a briefing, made it clear that the choice on SIM-binding guidelines is not going to change. There are some points which can be nationwide safety points, and on nationwide safety points, there might be no compromise, the minister asserted.
BIF, in its letter to DoT, mentioned: “We respectfully submit that whereas the meant goal of those amended guidelines and respective instructions is effectively understood and appreciated, any such regulatory intervention should adhere to the ideas of due course of and proportionality and have to be throughout the statutory ambit of the governing laws, that’s, The Telecommunication Act, 2023.”
The industry body mentioned that the authorized opinion supplied to it by a senior counsel has concluded that the modification guidelines and the consequential instructions are “ultra vires the mother or father laws and are additionally unconstitutional”.
It additional mentioned that as per the authorized opinion, by introducing and regulating Telecommunication Identifier Consumer Entity or TIUE, that are non-authorised entities, the Modification Guidelines materially alter the category of individuals topic to telecom regulation and lengthen the statutory scope of the Act, by the use of delegated laws (Modification Guidelines).
“Particularly, allowing TIUEs to ‘use’ telecommunication identifiers misinterprets the target of the Act, which confines lawful allocation and use of such identifiers to authorised entities solely,” it mentioned.
In keeping with the opinion, the modification guidelines and the consequential instructions additionally create regulatory convergence with out statutory harmonisation, BIF mentioned.
This additionally conflicts with an present and strong parallel authorized regime, together with the Data Expertise Act, sectoral monetary laws, and the Digital Private Information Safety Act, it argued.
Extending telecom rule-making to digital platforms via delegated laws dangers duplication, jurisdictional battle, and inconsistent compliance burdens throughout sectors, the BIF letter mentioned, summarising the crux of the authorized opinion.
“Taken cumulatively, the Modification Guidelines and the Instructions characterize an impermissible enlargement of delegated authority underneath the Telecom Act and a departure from the authorisation-centric structure of the Act,” the letter learn.
Considerations referring to digital id governance and platform authentication, nonetheless reputable in goal, have to be addressed inside acceptable statutory frameworks and thru categorical legislative mandate, relatively than by increasing telecom regulation past its enacted area via subordinate devices, it mentioned.
BIF highlighted that the authorized opinion additionally states that an application-level reference (use) to a cellular quantity by a TIUE is spinoff and doesn’t fall underneath the purview of telecom providers as envisaged by the Act. It, subsequently, doesn’t represent statutory ‘use’ of a telecommunication identifier throughout the which means of the sections of the Telecom Act.
“It’s respectfully submitted that points talked about within the opinion pertain to not the target of combating cybercrime, which stays paramount, however to the authorized structure via which such measures are operationalised,” BIF mentioned, including that the place far-reaching technological, financial and public affect are involved, it’s within the collective curiosity of all stakeholders that the framework is anchored within the mother or father statute and insulated from avoidable authorized uncertainty.
BIF emphasised it’s dedicated to constructive engagement with the DoT and to supporting measures that successfully deal with digital fraud inside a constitutionally and statutorily sound framework.
The federal government’s directive would change how customers entry the providers of messaging apps, together with WhatsApp, Telegram, Sign, Arattai, Snapchat, Sharechat, Jiochat, and Josh, in India. The directive signifies that these messaging providers would solely work if the SIM is current and energetic within the consumer’s machine.
Issuing the route on November 28, the telecom division mentioned it has come to the discover of the federal government that among the app-based communication providers which can be utilising cellular quantity for identification of its clients/customers or for provisioning or supply of providers permit customers to eat their providers with out availability of the underlying SIM throughout the machine through which the mentioned platform or app is operating.
“…and this characteristic is posing a problem to telecom cyber safety as it’s being misused from exterior the nation to commit cyber-frauds,” it had mentioned.
The DoT asserted that it has develop into essential to concern instructions to suppliers of app-based communication providers to forestall the misuse of telecommunication identifiers and to “safeguard the integrity and safety of the telecom ecosystem”.
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