Even though privacy has been declared to be a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in a recent case, we still do not have a Privacy Act which makes violation of privacy an offence.
It may also be mentioned that most of the fundamental rights are available only against the State (i.e., the Government, legislature, etc.) and they are generally not available against private individuals. For taking care of violation of privacy by an individual, you may need a Privacy Act, which does not exist in India till date.
No doubt when such unsolicited phone calls are made by marketing companies for their own commercial purposes, there is a violation of the privacy of the person who is called by them, who may be busy in his own work or may be sleeping or taking rest.
The problem is that we do not have perfect laws to punish such people. We do have “Do Not Disturb” Guidelines framed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), but these are mostly ineffective, especially when the calls or messages are routed through Internet. You may register your mobile phone on DND and file complaint as and when you receive unsolicited calls. My experience shows that sometimes, the calling numbers are disconnected after enquiries, though on some occasions no action is taken by justifying the call made or by citing insufficient information.
If you have evidence to show sale of databases of phone numbers by stealing data from a bank or some other company to marketers, then you may report the same to the concerned police agencies since it may amount to an offence under the Information Technology Act.
Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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