 bill no xcix of 2006 the direct marketing telephone calls  (regulation) bill, 2006 a billto check and regulate the unsolicited direct marketing calls made by banks, non-banking   financial institutions, cellular phone, pharmaceutical and insurance companies        and companies manufacturing other high end consumer goods, on the          mobile or landline telephone of an individual thereby violating the              right to privacy, by establishing a do-not call registry and               preventing the companies or individual from disclosing                customer's details to any other company or individual                        and for matters connected therewith or                                  incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the direct marketing telephone calls (regulation) act,2006short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state and in all other cases, the central government;(b) "consent" means signing of a written document by an individual as a positive indication of the individual's intention to receive direct marketing telephone calls and includes acceptance in electronic form;(c) "do not call registry" means the registry established under section 4;(d) "individual subscriber" means a subscriber to a telephone service which is publicly available;(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act;(f) "tele-density" means the number of telephones (both land line and mobile) in use for every hundred individuals living in a city;(g) "telephone calls" includes short messaging service and multi messaging service;(h) "telecom controller" means telecom controller appointed under section 6; (i) "unsolicited" means any direct marketing telephone call to which an individual has not given his consent for receiving3 subject to the provisions of this act, no person shall make any unsolicited telephone calls to an individual subscriber for direct marketing purposes without his consentprohibition of making unsolicited telephone calls establishment of do not call registry4 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, establish a do not call registry in every city of the country having a tele-density of twenty five which shall ensure that the telephone numbers of subscribers who do not want to receive unsolicited telephone calls are no longer available to organizations including charity and voluntary organizations for making direct marketing calls(2) individual subscriber to any telephone service who does not wish to receive direct marketing calls may register their telephone numbers with the do not call registry in such a manner as may be prescribed5 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, appoint a telecom controller for each do not call registry to look after its functionsappointment of telecom controllers(2) the terms and conditions of service of the telecom controller shall be such as may be prescribed(3) the appropriate government shall provide such number of officers and staff  as may be required for efficient functioning of the telecom controller(4) the procedure for appointment of the telecom controllers, their powers and functions shall be such as may be prescribedright to claim damages6 any person who receives unsolicited direct marketing calls shall be entitled to compensation for any damage or distress caused by breach of any provision of this act in such manner as may be prescribed7 the telephone numbers and other personal details of any individual subscriber shall not be disclosed by any individual or establishment to any other person or establishmentpersonal details of subscriber not to be disclosed8 the central government shall, after due appropriation made in this behalf, provide such sums of money as it may think fit for being utilized for the purposes of this actcentral government to provide fundspenalty9 whoever contravenes or attempts to contravene or abets the contravention of the provisions of this act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to three years or with fine, which may extend to ten lakhs or with both| offence    ||------------|| companies |10 where a person committing a contravention of any of the provisions of this act or of any rule, made thereunder is a company, every person who, at the time the contravention was committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of business of the company as well as the company, shall be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to punishment if  he proves that the contravention took place without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent such contraventionexplanation:—for the purpose of this section:—(i) "company" means anybody corporate and include a firm or other association of individuals; and(ii) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firmsummary trial2 of 197411 all offences under this act shall be tried summarily in the manner prescribed for summary trial under the code of criminal procedure act, 1973power to remove difficulties12 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central government may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficult:provided that no such orders shall be made after the expiry of the period of three years from the date of commencement of this actoverriding effect13 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, the provisions in any other law, for the time being in force, relating to unsolicited direct marketing callspower to make rules14 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement  of  objects  and  reasonsof late, there has been a tremendous jump in the direct marketing sector every now and then, people are receiving unsolicited telephone calls from various banking companies, non-banking financial companies, cell phone operators, credit card companies, insurance companies and others offering various kinds of services and loans provided by their companies its impact can be seen more on the mobile phone users as their number has also multiplied to a large size overtaking the landline subscribers these companies are obtaining the telephone numbers of the persons through illegal means and make all kinds of offers to the subscriber by calling him on the phone or sending sms relating to their services which, at times, are quite irritating these calls are assuming the proportion of a nuisance, as they disturb the subscribers day and night many a time a person is in meeting and all of a sudden his mobile rings with an offer to provide him life time free credit card or zero per cent interest loan though none of these things are free or interest free, the agents of these companies claim to be representatives of the bank or the company, etc but actually are not employees of the bank or the company they are often found to be direct marketing agents of the bank whenever a consumer complains about harassment or otherwise by such direct marketing agents, banks, etc often refuse to accept any responsibility or even deny any relationship with these agents the surprising fact remains how these agents are getting the telephone numbers of the subscribers there is a nexus amongst the persons working in various companies and they are selling the subscribers' details to the other companies for a fixed price these companies are supposed to keep the subscribers' details confidential instead of disclosing or selling it these companies are in fact violating the right to privacy of the individual several countries in the world recognize the subscriber's right to privacy but the same has not received much attention in our country as a result there are invasions of all kinds on privacy without much retaliation the companies making unsolicited calls do so without the consent of the person by way of getting his telephone numbers through some undesirable means there has to be a check on these unsolicited telephone calls though rbi has come out with some guidelines on these unsolicited telephone calls made for promotion of credit cards being offered by banks but the same remains to be unnoticed and not extended to other servicesin many countries, agencies have been created for this purpose and if the subscriber is registered with those agencies, no direct marketing calls/sms/mms can be made to that person the same is required to be done in our country also with this end in view, it has been proposed to establish a do not call registry in each city of the country having a teledensity of twenty five and no unsolicited direct marketing calls shall be made to those persons who would register themselves with this registry the bill seeks to achieve the above objectives financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill empowers the appropriate government to appoint telecom controllers, officers and staff for looking after the functioning of the do not call registry clause 8 provides that central government shall make the funds available for being utilized for the purpose of this act the bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india to the tune of rupees twenty crore per annum memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 14 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill as the matter will relate to details only, the delegation of powers is of a normal character———— a billto check and regulate the unsolicited direct marketing calls made by banks, non-banking financial institutions, cellular phone, pharmaceutical and insurance companies and companies manufacturing other high end consumer goods, on the mobile or landline telephone of an individual thereby violating the right to privacy, by establishing a do-not call registry and preventing the companies or individual from disclosing customer's details to any other company or individual and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri mahendra mohan, mp)