This week, FM Nirmala Sitharaman defended the provisions of the new income tax bill, which allows an authorised officer to “break open the lock of any door, box, locker, safe, almirah, or other receptacle for exercising the powers conferred by clause (i), to enter and search any building, place, etc., where the keys thereof or the access to such building, place, etc., is not available; or gain access by overriding the access code to any said computer system or virtual digital space, where the access code thereof is not available.”
Clause 247 of the Income Tax Bill, which will be effective starting April 1, 2026, allows authorised officers to do so only if they have information and reason to believe that the individual in concern owns undisclosed income, property, or documents that they would willfully not reveal in a bid to evade income tax.
Defending the need to include digital spaces and virtual realms under the ambit of search and seizure for income tax purposes, Sitharaman highlighted that such provisions are not new and currently exist under Section 132 of the I-T Act, 1961. However, presently, the section only covers physical assets and books of accounts, leaving digital assets and documents out of its coverage.
Noting how WhatsApp messages had already helped the government uncover Rs 200 crore worth of unaccounted funds linked to crypto, Sitharaman also underlined how Google Maps history and Instagram accounts have been instrumental in identifying cash hideouts and “benami” properties like luxury cars.
Many have raised concerns about this violating their fundamental constitutional right to privacy. But the question is, is the government legally allowed to do so? Is it already in the process of scrutinising our personal information like WhatsApp chats, which claim to be encrypted end-to-end? We decode for you.
Government can access any data in cases of national security
Due to WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, messages sent between two users are only readable by them; even the service provider cannot decrypt the contents of the messages. This prevents any third party, including service providers (WhatsApp, Telegram), from accessing the messages.
However, as Ashish Mishra, Partner-Cyber Security, NangiaNXT notes, “As of now, the government has the provision to access the encrypted messages under certain exceptions such as legal request, court matters, surveillance, and criminal investigations. The DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection) Act, along with the Telegraph Act and IT Act, gives the government power to request such data from service providers.”
Section 17 of the DPDP Act also empowers the government to access even encrypted messages, particularly for national security, law enforcement, public order, or investigation of crimes. In other words, the government can exempt certain agencies from compliance if it is “in the interest of sovereignty, security of the state, or public order.”
This is termed as “reasonable restrictions” in the act. “However, the implementation is still under debate,” notes Mishra.
Even experts note that at present, there is no verified evidence to suggest that the government is directly accessing private WhatsApp chats or personal Google Maps history of every individual to track black money.