In a written reply to Parliament, Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and IT has stated that the government has imposed heavy penalty on operators for issuing mobile phone numbers against forged documents.
As per Sibal, in respect of calendar years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, more than 2.4 million consumer application forms (CAFs) have been audited during monthly sample audit and penalties amounting to more than Rs 27.57 billion have been imposed on telecom service providers.
The sample verification of CAFs along with supporting documents to cross check the compliance on photo, identity, address (PIA) basis are carried out every month by the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring Term (TERM) Cell, Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Sibal, further stated that around 10,714 complaints and first information report (FIRs) have been lodged with the Police as of October 31, 2012 related to cases where forged documents were submitted for obtaining a mobile connection. Out of these, 8,786 cases were against subscribers who were found to be involved in forgery. Cases of forgery have come to light with the law enforcement agencies and police facing difficulties in tracing out the actual user due to lack of proper verification.
Sibal added that to tackle the matter, DoT came out with a fresh set of guidelines on November 9, 2012 for verification of new mobile subscribers. As per the revised guidelines, in cases where forged documents are submitted by the subscriber and originals are also forged, police complaint or FIR shall be lodged by the franchisee against the subscriber within 15 days of bringing this to the notice of the franchisee.
In case the franchisee fails to lodge a complaint, the licensee (telecom operator) should lodge complaint against the subscriber and franchisee within further three days. If the licensee does not take action against the subscriber, TERM Cell shall lodge complaint against the licensee.
Besides, the law enforcement agencies can suo-motto register a FIR in case they find that forged documents have been submitted for obtaining mobile SIM under relevant provisions of Indian Penal Code.
