Just two weeks after a Department of Telecom (DoT) official, Ashish Joshi, sent a letter to telecom operators about the alleged “misuse of telecom network for sending obscene and vulgar messages”, the department has “withdrawn the letter”.
Joshi, the controller of communications in DoT, had sent the letter to nine telecom operators on 19 February, The Indian Express reported.
On Tuesday, 26 February, the government had suspended Joshi, who had asked the Delhi Police to take action against an individual for posting an "incendiary" video on YouTube.
The video in question was posted by former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra and advocated for attacks against “traitors”.
A senior official in the Ministry of Communications, quoted in the report, explained the reasoning behind withdrawing the letter.
“Separate emails have been sent to each of the recipients explaining the appropriate procedure to be adopted in such cases. Telecom service providers cannot block unless there is an order from a judicial authority or competent authority to block. It is the cyber cell which can investigate and ask for action to be taken. Those who have complaints can file them with the respective cyber cells,” the official said.
Speaking to The Quint, Joshi had said after his suspension, “I had brought to the notice of Police Commissioner, Delhi the incendiary video circulated by Kapil Mishra, as a public servant and in public interest . It was taken otherwise.”
The DoT order had not specified any reason for the suspension.
“Competent Authority in exercise of powers ...hereby places the said Shri Ashish Joshi an SAG officer ...posted as Controller of Communication Accounts, Uttarakhand, under suspension with immediate effect.”DoT order dated 26 February.
“Incendiary, Provocative Video Violates IPC”: Joshi
Joshi on Monday, 25 February, had written to the Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik for action against former AAP Minister Kapil Mishra alleging that he has circulated a highly “incendiary video, provoking people to attack some citizens” on You Tube and Twitter in violation to IT Act and Indian Penal Code.
According to PTI, he had mentioned that licence conditions bar carriage of objectionable, obscene, unauthorised or any other content, messages or communications in any form in the network.
He had therefore asked telcos to take immediate action against customers/subscribers for sending such messages as it is also a violation of customer declaration in customer application form.
On 19 February, Joshi had also issued an order to telecom operators to crack down on offensive or obscene messages to people and set up a helpline to receive complaints against such customers.
The order was issued in the wake of some TV journalists filing complaints against receipt of abusive messages on their cellphones from some mobile subscribers.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express)
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