Regulation, Call Data & Privacy
Court stops SEBI’s fishing expedition

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has been fighting a long battle with telecom operators over its rights, as a regulator, to demand telephone call details of persons being investigated for financial offences. While some telecom companies parted with the data, others resisted. However, SEBI obtained the powers to seek call data records (CDR) and began to make thousands of requisitions since 2009. 
 
The matter eventually landed in court. The question then was: What data can the regulator requisition? Can it go on a fishing expedition and demand data on suspicion of illegal activity? Or should it restrict its demand to people under investigation? In April 2014, the Bombay High Court delivered a landmark judgement that laid down the mandatory safeguards. It has said that SEBI can only call for CDRs of persons who are subject to an investigation or inquiry and nobody else. 
 
Moreover, only a ‘duly authorised’ official can call for the data and he will have to record an opinion, in writing, on the file about why the data is relevant to the investigation. This means that there can be no fishing inquiry and every SEBI official cannot ask for call records on a whim or suspicion. It also means that SEBI will have to put an end to its practice where even the most junior officers were sending out thousands of demands for call records with a simple email or letter 
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