The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Central government to frame within six weeks the guidelines for search and seizure of digital devices, reported Bar and Bench.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia was hearing two public interest litigations seeking safeguards against unreasonable interference by law enforcement agencies.

While one petition was filed by the Foundation for Media Professionals, the other was by a group of five academics. The academics contended that law enforcement agencies were exercising unbridled power when it comes to seizing digital devices that contain “much, if not all, of a citizen’s personal and professional life”.

The top court expressed concern about the delay by the Centre in framing guidelines since 2021 when the academics had filed their plea.

The bench stated that until the guidelines are formed, the Central Bureau of Investigation manual could be used as an interim solution to the issue as it would ensure that at least a hash value is provided to the owners of the devices.

“If you are getting a hash value, you are getting something,” said Justice Dhulia, reported Live Law. “CBI Manual touches upon this. Today, you will not even get your hash value. Now, if they follow the CBI manual, at least you will get a hash value, isn’t it?”

A hash value is a unique number used to ensure that a device and its data have not been tampered with.

Chapter 16 of the CBI manual 2020 says that the agency is required to provide the hash value of any confiscated digital device to its owners or custodians at the time of the seizure.

The top court had last month stressed the need for the Central government to put in place guidelines for the search and seizure of media persons’ digital devices.

“There are hundreds of journalists whose digital devices are taken away en masse,” senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for the Foundation for Media Professionals, told the court. “The issues raised in this petition are very significant because there are no guidelines regarding when and what may be seized, what can be accessed, what kind of protection is ensured for personal data, health data, financial data.”

Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju had said that investigating agencies cannot be shut out from examining such devices as they have to go through the data to find the relevant portion.

Justice Kaul, however, said that the practice could be “very dangerous”.