Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response On PIL To Implement CNAP To Allow Mobile Phone Users Know Identity Of Callers

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 15) sought a response from Union in a Public Interest Litigation seeking directions to Telecom network operators to implement CNAP (Calling Name Presentation Service). The bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar issued notice in the PIL considering the prevalence of the problem of cyber fraud. CNAP was introduced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a feature which displays the name of the caller on the phone of the user which may aid in combating spam and fraud calls. The CNAP is proposed as an alternative to the already existing 'True Caller' which has the same feature but the information is crowd-sourced and not always accurate. The petitioner, Gowrishankar is a Bangaluru-based individual who has filed the present PIL in light of the rampantly increasing cyber crimes and unsolicited calls. The plea underlines the issue of delayed implementation of CNAP by the Department of Telecom and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). "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 PIL States. The petitioner seeks a direction to implement the CNAP within a period of 3 months along with an efficient administrative mechanism in place to curb cyber fraud and quick reporting of such crimes. "Due to the lack of convincing progress in the implementation of CNAP post the original letter of the Respondent in 2022 and further to the information gathering exercise of the Petitioner, this PIL is filed as a last resort to ensure that CNAP is implemented promptly. The petitioner requests the Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the Respondent to implement CNAP within three months and establishing necessary supplementary measures viz., a reporting mechanism for fraudulent calls, integration of CNAP service with the Cybercrime Reporting Portal, and pass any other appropriate orders to safeguard public safety."Case Details : GOWRISHANKAR S Versus UNION OF INDIA | W.P.(C) No. 664/2024 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response On PIL To Implement CNAP To Allow Mobile Phone Users Know Identity Of Callers

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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