The government today said it follows a proper procedure in ordering interception of telephones and a high-level committee reviews each case individually before giving its final approval.
Union home secretary Gopal K Pillai said all the interception of phones as well as e-mails follow the prescribed procedures and the judgement of the Supreme Court and the rules laid down under the Telegraph Act.
"We not only have the Union home secretary and state home secretaries authorising the interception of telephones, we also have an oversight committee which is headed by the cabinet secretary with law secretary and the telecom secretary (as its members)," he said on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi.
Pillai said the committee looks after each of the order passed by the Union home secretary or in case of the state by the state home secretary.
"They verify whether the orders were passed as per the law," he said.
On an average 6,000 to 8,000 telephones are being tapped by various agencies at any given time after taking permission from the Union home secretary. Besides, around 10,000 more telephones are intercepted by state governments, Pillai had recently said.
Pillai's comments came a day after the affidavit of Reliance Infocomm before the Supreme Court saying that in 2005 in Delhi, 3588 phones were intercepted by the company. Between 2006 and 2010, the company intercepted 1.51 lakh telephones across India.
