Background Note on adequacy of existing law to deal with violations of the guidelines

issued by DST for acquiring and producing geo spatial data and services

1. Introduction
1.1 Maps are as old as civilization and it took quite a long time for the first clay tablet to evolve
into the paper map, but with the advent of the age of information technology, its further
growth has gained gargantuan momentum and in a short span, has evolved from a digital
cartography to a map as a snapshot of a geospatial database, to geo-web services, to service
chaining etc. Now, it has become a sine qua non of any developmental planning and decision
making. But any technology is merely a tool and it depends upon the users as to what they
intend to do with it, for one can cook his food or burn a house with a matchstick. It was aptly
encapsulated by saying “science without religion is blind and religion without science is
lame.” This clearly necessitates its regulation and the domain of mapping and surveying is
not an exception. What to regulate and how much to regulate, which may be conducive for
the overall development of geospatial sector in one hand and ensure the integrity and
sovereignty of the country on the other, need a very delicate balance. It depends upon
various internal and as well as external factors, which is a function of related economic,
social and technological ecosystem of the time and which makes it really challenging.
Opening up of drone sector by Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021 on 15th of
March, 2021 and drone attack on defence vital installations on 27th June, 2021 in Jammu is
an illustrative example to ponder with.
1.2 Any existing regulation is adequate or not is very subjective and it will depend on what is
our ultimate goal and how much one can extrapolate the present. In this backdrop, passing
of the Surveying and Mapping Act, 2014 by the Pakistan and similar act by China in 2017 and
dying of Indian Draft Geospatial Information Regulation bill-2016 due to its draconian nature
and vehement opposition by the Indian geospatial industry needs deep thinking. The
geospatial ecosystem of this country has changed beyond recognition with the historic 15th
February, 2021 guidelines for acquiring and producing geospatial data and services and
consequent Draft Geospatial data policy and a balancing regulatory mechanism is the need
of the hour. However, we have to move cautiously along with the wisdom gained so far from
our history of this domain.
2. Background
2.1 It is said that 90 percent of all the data available has a geospatial component in it and this
ubiquitous nature is explained by the fact that human eye has limitations to see a very
limited area all around him , whereas the area required for any planning and decision
making is much larger. Moreover, when we see the different objects in their spatial context
with their association they give much better interpretation and understanding.
2.2 Preparation of maps of the Indian territory in a systematic manner is necessitated by the fact
that the britishers wanted to have a track of how much area they have already conquered
and understand the geopolitical situations and decide how and where to concentrate next
for realization of their goal of capturing such a vast country. This legacy is the genesis of
secrecy inherent within this mapping and surveying activities in this country. Finally, Survey
of India was born in 1867 and grown as a National mapping organization which was
synonymous with mapping and surveying activities in this country for pretty long time and
even in recent future. The requirement of different types of maps and the consumers are
 the king was totally unheard during this era. It was common to reply that this is what is
available with Survey of India and you have to manage with it or wait till the required map is
available with us as the mapping in this country was the exclusive mandate of Survey of
India.
2.3 But the ecosystem changes fast and it was soon recognized that requirement of maps of
various scales are required for the developmental activities in one hand and rapid growth of
space remote sensing made it possible to collect a snap shot from the space itself. When the
sub meter resolution becomes the order of the day and freely available google maps in every
mobile become a necessity of a common man restrictions in collecting geo spatial data
becomes more and more irrelevant.
3. Evolution of regulations in Surveying and mapping domain
3.1 Surveying and mapping was exclusively done by Survey of India and Defence was the largest
consumer of the maps produced. The participation of the private industries in the
acquisition of geospatial data was totally banned and even procurement of the
topographical maps beyond the government sector was not easy. Ministry of defence was
the controlling authority and their OM’s were the regulating mechanism for the mapping
and surveying in this country.
3.2 Since independence the mapping and the surveying was governed by OM on Restriction of
sale, publication and distribution of maps of MOD No F-119/49/D.I dated 13th Nov, 1950.
This was superseded by New OM No F-7 (7)/64-D (GS-III) dated 25th August, 1967 of MOD
on the same subject, which was made on a positive note in the sense that it says that all the
maps published by SOI will be made available for publication and distribution except… these
exceptions. However state government or any private individual or firms are not allowed for
publications of maps or surveys of areas falling under restricted or higher classification zone
without the prior approval of the MOD. It also gives a list of government officials who can
authorize the sanction of restricted maps.
3.3 The map restriction policy was further reviewed by MOD OM no. 2(5)/95/D(GS-III) dated 13th
July, 1998 in which, availability of digital map was regulated by a committee of secretaries.
SOI was mandated to undertake digitization on the basis of ground survey data and nine
other government departments were designated to digitize unrestricted maps already
published by SOI up to 1:50,000 scale with defined contents. These agencies were allowed to
provide digital data to NGOs and private agencies after entering an MOU with them. Digital
data of the restricted areas will be handled by army headquarters and SOI only.
3.4 Andhra Pradesh State Remote Sensing Application Centre was added in the list of these nine
agencies in April, 2000 by a separate OM of MOD. In January 2002 a clarification on the
above two OMs were published by MOD, so that these existing guidelines may be strictly
followed. The term value addition was also clarified and it includes collection of additional
details of features in the defined nine layers in terms of attributes by any methods.
3.5 A paradigm shift at policy level came through the New Map Policy (NMP) of 19th May 2005
in which SOI has been mandated to take a leadership role in liberalizing excess of spatial
data without jeopardizing national security. It recommended two series of maps – Defence
Series Map(DSM) based on Everest datum and polyconic projection with heights, contours
and full content without dilution of accuracy. The other is Open Series Map (OSM), primarily
meant for supporting developmental activities in the country with no VA’s/VP’s with
different sheet numbers in UTM projection on WGS-84 datum. The NMP comes with
 National Topographic Database (NTDB) with defined datasets. It also authorizes SOI to issue
detailed guidelines on the implementation of NMP. As a response, SOI came up with Map
Transaction Registry (MTR), various mechanisms of licensing of digital maps, procedure for
value added products, digital data indent forms and pricing of various map products. These
guidelines also mention that copyright of all SOI maps will vest exclusively with SOI and any
person resorting unauthorized copying shall make him liable to criminal and civil liability
under existing law.
3.6 MOD has issued instructions regarding aerial photography on 1st may 2006 vide no.
28(14/2006-D(GS-III)) in suppression of all previous orders issued in 1957, 1961 and 1989. It
deals with the procedure for clearance for aerial photography from DGCA as per the
guidelines of MOD. SOI will obtain the security clearance from MOD directly and for
NRSA/Government body the application may be submitted directly to three intelligence
agencies except for disaster related activities. The validity of such security clearance by MOD
will be for twelve months from date of its issue. For acquisition of aircraft-borne data as and
when required MOD may deploy its own security officer. For data collection near the
international border and where foreign aircrafts/equipments and technology is involved
provision of special joint inspection were made. All aerial photography will be security-
vetted by intelligence agencies. It also gives the types of security classifications for aerial
photograph/air-borne remote-sensing data. It also deals with storage, issue and handling of
above data.
3.7 The government of India adopted the Remote-Sensing Data Policy (RSDP)-2011 which deals
with the modalities for managing/permitting acquisition/dissemination of remote-sensing
data. Department of Space (DOS) was made the nodal agency. It states that for operating
Remote-Sensing satellites, license/permission of government is required through nodal
agency and NRSC/Antrix will be competent to enter into agreement for
acquisition/dissemination of foreign satellite data. This policy opens all the remote-sensing
data of resolutions up to 1 meter on a non-discriminatory and on as-requested basis. This
liberated the remote sensing data from the earlier restrictions and was historic.
3.8 The MOD latest guidelines on restriction of sale, publication and distribution of maps came
on 5th December 2017 vide their OM no. 28(05/2015/(GS-III)) which was necessitated so as
to bring them at par with the technological changes and advancement in space-based
technology and NMP-2005. It states that all DSM will be classified as restricted and all other
maps irrespective of their scale/format/purpose published by the government, non-
government or private agencies will be available for publication and distribution including
web-based hosting, of course with a long list of exceptions. It gave a red line all along the
external boundary of India with separate provisions for inside the red line and outside of
demarcated red line. It gave a new procedure for the classification of map and stated that
state government/central government may undertake publications of maps subject to
certain conditions. The officers authorized to sanction the issue of restricted maps was also
revised for clearance of MOD for issue of restricted maps to individuals/organizations and
commercial firms. The concept of safe custody certificates was retained.
3.9 MOD has constituted a committee to review the restrictions on maps under the
chairmanship of Dr. VK Saraswat who submitted its report in November 2020. It probably
recommended that all security clearances may be given within two days by the MOD but the
report was shelved.
3.10 DST came with historic guidelines for acquiring and producing geospatial data and services
on 15th February 2021, which heralded a new era of level playing field for all players in the
geospatial domain and removed the prior approval, security clearance, license or any other
restrictions on collection, generation, preparation, dissemination, publication, updation and
digitization with minimal exceptions. It gives the concept of a negative list of sensitive
attributes and put a threshold value of 1-meter horizontal or planimetry, 3 meters vertical
and 1 mili gal of gravity. The compliance with the guidelines will be through self-certification
and in its last para 15, it states that any violation of these guidelines will be dealt under the
existing applicable law which necessitates the thorough examination of adequacy of existing
laws.
3.11 DST also came up with a 24-page detailed draft National Geospatial Policy (NGP) which is
available for comments now.
4. Existing provisions of law to deal with violation of the guidelines issued by DST
4.1 Till date, there is no specific law available in the country for governing the violations in the
geospatial domain. It is worthy to note here that many countries have specific acts to deal
with such mapping and surveying violations. China came up with such a law in 2017 and
Pakistan in 2014. The Indian government also came up with draft geospatial bill in 2016. The
bill was prepared to restrict mapping by private companies with licensing and it was severely
criticized for being too restrictive and not practical in its scope attracting severe reactions
from industry and other government departments alike and hence it couldn’t see the light of
the day. The existing provisions in India to deal with violations in the surveying and mapping
domain are scattered and subject to interpretation. It is emphasized that geospatial data
and services are so pervasive; it affects and has implications on many aspects of human life
and behavior.
4.2 India still insists on imposing physical restrictions on the movement of hard-copy maps
oblivious to the fact that the entire world consumes maps in digital format even over the
cloud. This is because the existing provisions are quite old and are of the era when digital
maps and geo-web services were quite unknown. Thus, there is a dire need to come up with
a state-of-art surveying and mapping act to deal with violations in this domain.
4.3 NMP-2005, is a loosely-worded quasi-legislative document which itself makes no mention of
export restrictions but, those restrictions are buried in paragraph 2(d) of the Guidelines to
the Map Policy which makes reference to Customs Notification No. 118-Cus/F.No.21/5/62-
Cus.I/VIII, dated 4th May, 1963. This is the primary legal document that spells out the
prohibition on the export of maps of a scale larger than 1:250,000. This 1963 notification
had actually been amended twice, once in 1980 and then in 2002. The 1980 amendment
prohibited the export of maps on microfilm.

The 1963 notification was worded broadly enough to prohibit the export of maps in any
medium. That’s the reason why everyone assumes it applied to the Internet. Why then, did
the government felt the need to issue a separate notification to prohibit the export of maps
on microfilm? It is a point to ponder with.

The Map Policy was issued in 2005, well after both the amendments to the 1963
Notification. At the time, the government was aware of the fact that the 1963 amendment
had been liberalized. Yet, the Map Policy refers only the 1963 amendment and uses the
unmodified text of that notification to frame an absolute prohibition on the export of maps
 out of the country. It needs further explanation why the government chose to selectively
highlight only those notifications that support a restrictive map export regime when the
legal reality is far more liberal.

4.4 The Criminal law amendment act-1990 amended the CLA-1969 and added subsection which
states that whoever publishes a map of India which is not in conformity with the published
map of Survey of India shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend six months
or with a fine or both. However no Court shall take the cognizance of an offence except on
complaint by the government
4.5 IT act-2000 Along with its various amendments especially Amendment Act-2008 is a
voluminous act running into more than 100 pages and some of the provisions of this act is
obliquely applicable to geospatial domain. They are more relevant to digital geospatial data.
The provision of classification of sensitive information, security of third party access and
prevention of computer misuse, user access control, password management, data
protection and media management in general may be interpreted as applicable to geospatial
data. The purchase and licensing of software and network security may be applicable to geo
Web Services. This act has to be explored in great depth so that relevant para of the IT act
may be analyzed properly to examine its applicability to geospatial domain.
4.6 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) rules - 2021 deal with the operation of UAS and since
drone-surveying has now become the de facto technology to collect the large-scale
geospatial data. It has implications on the recent guidelines issued by the DST for the
geospatial data and services. Both must be harmonized and may be in tune with and should
not contradict each other. The areas which are banned as per UAS-21 for collecting data by
UAS obviously require other data collection strategies. Moreover, the provisions to regulate
violations of UAS-21 are also applicable to surveying and mapping.
4.7 In exercise of power conferred under IT act 2000, the government came up with IT
intermediaries guidelines and digital media ethics code-2021 and it came into effect from
25th February 2021. Although, it is for regulating social medias in general, some of its
provisions like due intelligence by intermediaries and code of ethics and procedures in
relation to digital media may be interpreted to be applicable to the digital geospatial data
also.
4.8 Official Secret act-1923, although quite old but very powerful is applicable to the
government servant and citizens of India even outside India. “Communicating “,
“Documents” defined under this act is very broad and may be applicable to maps also. This is
basically regulating the wrongful communication including transfer and spying and
punishment given for any violation under this act is very harsh, if anything is prejudicial to
the safety of Nation.
4.9 The personal data protection bill-2019, which is yet to be passed, deals with the privacy of
data and information especially transferring of personal sensitive data. It also deals with the
restriction on retention of personal data and fix the accountability by way of designated data
protection officer. Geo-spatial data are very powerful and may encroach the privacy in many
ways and thus they may be applicable to surveying and mapping domain also.
4.10 National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP)-2012 is an important policy
document, advocating suo-moto to provide the public information and data generated by
the public money. For its implementation https://data.gov.in/ portal was launched which
 now had enormous data, published by different Ministries and Departments. It is designed
to promote data sharing and enable, access to Government of India published data for Geo-
Spatial planning and development. Here, the Geo-Spatial data is also a subset of the data
defined in this policy. NDSAP gives detail of the state of art technology like data warehouse
and OLAP for data sharing and access and data pricing, which is very well applicable to Geo-
Spatial domain.
4.11 In Indian Copyright Act-1957, artistic work include map, chart or plan and its provision may
be applicable in Geo-Spatial domain also. However, copyright on Geo-Spatial database is
debatable and needs for analysis of good practices worldwide and a policy decision by the
Government in this respect.
4.12 Right to Information Act-2005, is very broad and some of its provision may be interpreted
to be applicable for Geo-Spatial domain also.
5. Adequacy of Existing laws to tackle violations in the Geo-Spatial domain.
5.1 It is really a very complex and difficult question to answer that the existing laws is adequate
or not to tackle all the violation of the guidelines issued by the DST. It is similar to declaring a
man free from all health issue as it can be ascertained only after carrying out all the possible
test and their correct interpretation.
Moreover, any punishment for any violation is adequate or not is very subjective. The
violation becomes further complex due to the advent of IT revolution and new means of
collecting, processing, interpreting, analyzing and disseminating of Geo-Spatial data. It is also
worth mentioning that most of the existing provision in any act were made for hard copy
maps and in the post digital era map has become a snapshot of a Geo-Spatial data base
which make the situation further complex.
5.2 In the past, violation of existing policy, guidelines and laws in the Geo-Spatial domain were
reported and legal remedies were sought. However, the outcome of all such efforts were far
less than desirable, which indicates that the provisions existing is not adequate.
5.2.1CBI inquiry against internet giant, Google were ordered in February-March, 2013, when
Google organized a Mapathon without taking any permission from Government of India. In
this Mapathon citizens were asked to map their neighborhood and collect various Points of
Interest (POI) including Hospital and Restaurant. Google was asked to share its details where
it was found that several coordinates having details of sensitive defence installations which
were out of public domain were collected. It was alleged that such sensitive data might have
passed to U.S companies. However, there was no concrete outcome of the CBI effort due to
inadequacy of legal provisions for such violations.
5.2.2 Another pertinent case is the 2008 judgment by the Madras High Court in J.
Mohanraj v (1) Secretary DST, Delhi; (2) Indian Space Research Organization, Bangalore; (3)
Google India Private Limited, Bangalore. A writ petition was filed by Mohanraj seeking a
complete ban on Google Earth and ‘Bhuvan’; mapping initiatives by Google and ISRO
respectively. The petition was allegedly filed in public interest considering the security
apparatus of Indian Government along with the threat posed by the terrorists. The
petitioner claimed that the initiatives such as Google Earth used high quality satellite
imagery to display bird’s eye view of various establishments including minute details and
were bound to cover defense establishments and sensitive areas, posing a threat to Indian
security. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s speech was referred to indicate his views against such open
creation of geospatial data. The provisions of the NMP were highlighted and it was alleged
 that such mapping practices violated the individual rights of a person under Article 21 of the
Constitution. Further, it was claimed that such practices could only be taken up by SOI and
were outside the purview of private organizations. However, the Court held that the
petitioner was unable to produce any specific “Guidelines/Rules/Law laid down by the
Central/State Governments, prohibiting the private organizations or any other individuals to
Interactive Mapping Program, covering vast majority of the Planet”. Since the court could
only interpret existing provisions and not lay down guidelines, passed the judgment against
the petitioners.
5.2.3 Very recently on 29th of June, 2021 an FIR was filed in U.P against Twitter officials
over publication distorted Indian Map. Here, it is worthy to point out that Section 505 (2) of
IPC and Section 74 of IT Act has been applied against the Twitter. Section 74 of IT Act deals
with fraudulent digital signature and violators may be imprisoned up to 2 years or with a fine
of 1 lakh or both. Similarly, Section 505 (2) deals with statements creating or promoting
enmity, hatred and ill will. Surprisingly, Criminal Amendment Act -1990 which deals with the
publication of distorted map were very well applicable but no complaint was made against
this violation.
5.2.4 Similarly, a case has been registered against Google Maps for alleged wrong
description of India’s International boundaries following a complaint by Survey of India
under the IT Act in the last week of June, 2021. What may be the outcome of this case is
anybody’s guess, but it certainly indicates that this country is in a dire need of a
comprehensive state of the art surveying and mapping act which may be capable of dealing
all violations in the Geo-Spatial domain.
6. The Challenge of dealing with the violations in Geo-Spatial domain.
6.1 In the post digital era, map is viewed as a snapshot of a Geo-Spatial data base. IT revolution
has changed all the aspect of Geo-Spatial domain for data collection, its processing,
application development and data dissemination. User access of any data base and data
dissemination based on Geo web services and API over a network is really complex and
violation is possible by hacking etc. from any place over the internet.
6.2 The complete chain from collection of foundation data and its further augmentation by
collecting of their various attributes, processing of this data sets and developing application
using application software for decision making is all interdependent. There may be multiple
stake holders involved in this value chain and violations are possible at every stage. If
something goes wrong and there is loss of any kind due to use of this Geo-spatial technology
it is a herculean task to fix the responsibility on one or other players of this value chain. For
example, in a routing application if there is a wrong U-Turn allowed and it leads to collision
of multiple vehicles and there is a loss of human life, it is difficult to ascertain who all are
liable to be punished. With the advancement of Geo-Spatial technology and concept of
driver less connected car the complexity is going to increase further in the future.
6.3 In this scenario making a state of the art Geo-Spatial Act, which is capable of tackling of all
such violations is really challenging as the law to be enacted must be futuristic and take into
account all the scenarios, which are possible for at least 10 years.
7. The approach for dealing the violations
7.1 It may be safely assumed that the existing scattered law available in this country is not
adequate for efficient tackling of all the possible violations in the Geo-Spatial domain. It
 infers that we need some additional laws to meet our objective of adequacy. There are two
possibilities here:
i) Identify all the scattered sections available, within the different acts which
are applicable to the Geo-Spatial domain and add/remove sections in each
act.
ii) Draft separate comprehensive state of the art Geo-Spatial Data and Services
Regulation Bill -2021, which can tackle all the possible violations of the
guidelines issued by DST.
7.2 It is averred that both the possibility has their pros and cons and lucid arguments may be
given for both of them. In the first case, we have to identify the relevant sections of each act
and amend these acts by inserting or deleting sections. It means we have to tinker with
many existing acts and amendments has to be passed for all of them. As per the business of
allocation rules, each Ministry has their domain defined and only that Ministry can enact law
in this domain. This infers that we have to approach many ministries and convince them that
this amendment is a dire necessity for regulating the Geo-Spatial domain. Once, they
convinced, they have to process the amendment and DST can only coordinate this activity.
Obviously, it may take longer to amend so many acts and meet our adequacy goal. In the
second case, we have to draft a separate state of the art comprehensive bill, which may
have an impression of post digital era and may be even more effective.
8. Conclusions/Recommendations
8.1 It is recommended that the whole Geo-Spatial domain may be divided into different sub
domains for their deeper investigation and answering the adequacy of existing law among
the various committee members. The sub domain may be either as per the value chain, like
collection of data, processing of data, application development and dissemination of data or
by the technology used like from the ground, aircraft/remote sensing Lidar/drone or any
other manner as deemed fit. This will divide the work load in one hand and will rule out
duplication of efforts on the other.
8.2 It is also recommended to go for a separate state of the art comprehensive Geo-Spatial Data
and Services Regulation Bill-2021 to meet the adequacy of all possible violations of the
guidelines issued by the DST.