New Income Tax Bill: IT Summons to Entail Access to ‘Phones’
Income Tax Department officials held an outreach programme in Kolkata (Image credit IT Dept)
Congress says Provision 247 in New Income Tax Bill Provisions Fails Privacy Test
By Wed Desk
New Delhi, March 7: The Congress on Friday said that the “new Income Tax Bill gives sweeping powers to officers to access phones and computers of anyone who receives IT summons”. The Congress said that provision 247 of the bill fails privacy test.
“It gives power to the officers to override any password of any device and gain access to all content, including cloud server, phone data, social media and of course, income related data,” said Gurdeep Singh Sappal, permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), in a post on X.
The Select Committee of parliament headed by the BJP MP Baijayant Panda had yesterday held deliberations with stakeholders on the new Income Tax Bill. Some of the chartered accountants had taken part in the deliberations on the bill in parliament premises.
This is a gross violation of Fundamental Right to Privacy, upheld by the Supreme Court, said the Congress leader. “The judgement clearly lays down various facets of privacy with respect to communication, associational, information, decisional, intellectual, and behavioural,” added Sappal.
He stated that the “data privacy related to phones and computers covers most of these. Supreme Court judgement also lays down triple test if any law requires overriding of fundamental right to privacy by the state/ government.”
“The test includes: a) There must be a law to justify encroachment of privacy b) Test of reasonableness mandated by Article 14, which is a guarantee against arbitrary state action c) The action is proportional to object and need of the law,” added Sappal.
The Congress leader argued that the “fundamental rights are granted as a guarantee against the state arbitrariness”. “The Supreme Court had already held that has ruled that the right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the right to life and liberty,” added Sappal.
He cited a case of a murder investigation. “The police officer has right to investigate. But he or she cannot violate fundamental rights and there are laws against any such violation, even if the person is finally given a death sentence. Of course, the state can hang a person, but only after due trial and punishment by the court of law,” added Sappal.
He stated that “summons are not a proof of crime”. “They can be issued by the assessing officer against anyone. The government can then access the entire data of a person, without even proving any crime. Also, at the end of investigation, the income tax authorities may conclude that there is no violation or just a minor violation. But they would have got access to all private information of the person,” added the Congress leader.
Therefore, the provision 247 of the new Income Tax Bill fails the test of reasonableness and also the test of proportionate action, said the Congress leader.
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