Phone companies may first need to get the permission of a suspected criminal before handing over his personal call details to the police for investigation. Public telecom major — Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd (MTNL) — is in trouble with the Central Information Commission (CIC) for “unlawfully” handing over to law enforcement agencies personal call details of a prime accused in a fake police encounter case without his prior consent.

“It has been clearly held that information about personal call details is held by any telecommunications company about its subscribers in a fiduciary capacity (bond of trust). Such information is exempt from disclosure to any third party without seeking approval or consent of the subscriber,” Information Commissioner Annapurna Dixit said in her judgment.

The recent verdict, which becomes a precedent, came on a Right to Information (RTI) appeal filed by Suraj Pal — a former police constable and an accused in a fake encounter, in which two men were allegedly shot dead — against the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, under whose jurisdiction MTNL falls.

Pal wanted to know why MTNL had disclosed personal call records of his prepaid number to the police without his permission. The prosecution had later used the same call records as primary evidence against Pal during the court trial.

While in Tihar Jail, he had moved the CIC in June 2009 through his representative Mukesh Saini, a former Navy commander, fellow inmate and prime accused in the infamous National Security Council Secretariat spy case of 2006.

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