The Supreme Court has sought the Centre’s response to a petition seeking urgent implementation of a caller name display service to tackle the rise in cybercrime and spam calls. Hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said, “Yes we understand the problem is there. Let Centre respond.”
The PIL, filed by Bengaluru resident Gowrishankar S, points to the growing menace of cybercrime and unsolicited phone calls and underlines the toll it takes on citizens, banks and law enforcement authorities.
The petition points out that the Centre’s Department of Telecommunications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India have identified the Calling Name Presentation Service (CNAP) as a proactive measure to tackle cybercrime but there is no roadmap for its implementation in the country.
“Despite the pressing nature of this issue, lack of a clear implementation timeline and the progress of CNAP during the last 2.5 years has led to the filing of this PIL seeking immediate action,” the 43-year-old finance professional’s petition says. Mr Gowrishankar runs an NGO that promotes citizen awareness on social issues.
According to the petition, cybercrime in India has reached an alarming level and people are suffering massive financial losses and stress due to such frauds.
CNAP is a supplementary service which flashes the caller’s name on phone screens. Currently, many use apps such as Truecaller for info on callers, but CNAP provides the caller’s name directly. When the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India initiated a consultation process on CNAP, a telecom body industry had opposed making CNAP mandatory. The Cellular Operators’ Association of India, which has Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea among its members, said CNAP should be optional for telecom service providers.
COAI pointed out that not all handsets support such functions and also flagged concerns related to the privacy and confidentiality of the country’s subscriber information.
