Parliament Watch: Compliance with IT Rules, spam call complaints and more [Day 4 roundup]

The Parliamentary Questions answered on day four of the ongoing 2022 Budget Session ranged from spam calls, pre-litigation settlement of cases, compliance with the new IT Rules, and more. .To a question by CPI Member of Parliament from Kerala, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) Ashwini Vaishnav said that while his Ministry is not mandated to maintain the list of intermediaries under the IT Rules of 2021, digital publishers are required to furnish certain information to the government. Over 2,100 digital publishers have furnished the requisite information so far, the Union Minister said in the Rajya Sabha. As regards those who have not complied with the Rules, the response stated,"MeitY, suo moto, does not track compliance by intermediaries, but relies on the reporting by the users of non-compliance if any.".TDP Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar asked the Central government about its awareness and action taken against web-apps targeting women. Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar answered, "Two such Apps with derogatory and malafide intentions against women, which came to the notice of Government, were hosted on an open-source platform namely “GitHub”. Both the Apps allegedly picked up the profiles of the women from social media platforms, and Twitter was used to promote the alleged content," he said. The rapid growth and openness of the internet allows for such kind of applications, the Minister stated, adding that such apps "reflect the aberrations of the society and the misuse of capabilities to develop the Apps and post any unlawful activities in the virtual space.".BJP Member of Parliament from Maharashtra Vikas Mahatme asked sought details on the extent of spam call complaints received by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the action taken in this regard. Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan replied that the Telecom Commercial Communication Customers Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018 was introduced with an aim to prevent the incidence of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), which may include spam and phishing calls.As revealed in the chart below, the number of UCC complaints had almost doubled in 2021 as compared to 2020 (April 1 onwards). The cities of Mumbai and Delhi and the States of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu saw a higher incidence in the number of such complaints.The following chart was shared with specific details:.BJP Member of Parliament from Sirsa Sunita Duggal asked about cases resolved through the Tele-Law scheme. "12,97,332 cases have been registered and 12,81,591 beneficiaries have been provided pre-litigation advice till 31st December, 2021 under Tele-law scheme," Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju answered in the Lok Sabha. He added that the scheme provides for access to "pre-litigation advice and consultation directly from the Panel Lawyer, free of cost. The Application is available in 6 languages viz. Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English on Android and iOS platform.".Answering a question in the Lower House, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju revealed that currently, "around 64 out of 157 posts in the Indian Legal Services cadre are vacant, which works out to 41% of the total cadre strength in the Indian Legal Services cadre."

Parliament Watch: Compliance with IT Rules, spam call complaints and more [Day 4 roundup]

Abhimanyu Hazarika

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