New Delhi--The Privileges Committee of Rajya Sabha will revisit its report which said that unauthorised access of call data records of Arun Jaitley in 2013 was not a breach of privilege and consider enlarging its scope to include phone-tapping of MPs.
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, who heads the Committee, said he would go by the sense of the House which has sought a review of the committee report.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Naresh Agarwal (SP) said the entire House had in 2013 expressed concern over then Leader of the Opposition Jaitley’s call data records (CDRs) being accessed unauthorisedly.
However, the panel was of the opinion that the act of accessing CDRs in an unauthorised manner, though sinister and punishable in the eyes of the law, “does not seem to cause any hindrance of obstruction in the functioning of a Member of Parliament so as to attract breach of his Parliamentary privileges.”
Agrawal said going by the report, anybody can access details of any MP.
Anand Sharma (Cong) alleged that there was rampant phone tapping and surveillance on political leaders, prominent persons, senior judiciary and senior civil servants.
When the Committee was seized of the issue of Jaitley’s call records being accessed unauthorisedly, two ministers in the NDA government complained of phone tapping, he said. The Home Minister, he said, had stated that the government had not authorised such tappings.
Indian Express
