Does IT Rules, 2021 Call For Breaking Of End To END Encryption?

The Information Technology  Rules, 2021 have been framed in exercise of powers of the
government under section 87 subsection (2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000,
and in place of the Information Technology Rules 2011, in response to growing concerns
about a lack of transparency, accountability, and user rights related to digital media, and
after extensive consultation with the public and stakeholders.
The MEITY is in charge of Part II of these Rules, while the Ministry of I&B is in charge
of Part III, which deals with the Code of Ethics. Under section 69A of the IT ACT, 2000, 
the government can block access to inappropriate content, which has passed the
constitutionality in Shreya Singhal's case.
 In this article, I will be discussing Rule 4(2) and 7 of the IT Rules, 2021 in particular.  
The above rules have been said by the various intermediaries to be arbitrary and violative
of fundamental rights because rule 4(2) of the IT Rules, 2021 infringe on an individual's
right to privacy, intermediaries that primarily provide messaging services are now
required to enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its
computer resource as may be required by a judicial order passed by a court of competent
jurisdiction or an order passed under Section 69 by the Competent Authority, as per the
Information Technology Act, 2000. This is a violation of the end-to-end encryption
services that such intermediaries guarantee. Rule 7, has diluted the safety harbor
provisions of due diligence to be observed by giant social media intermediaries and
makes the intermediaries liable in case of non-observance under both the IT Act, 2000
and Indian Penal Code. The IT Rules of 2021 only control the right to publish, download,
and remove content; they do not render a person criminally accountable for posting data.
Criminal liability is a legal action that begins when the user violates the criminal terms of
existing legislation in force. The main aim of Rule 7 is to ensure that intermediaries
comply with the regulations mentioned in the IT  Rules 2021 which aim to protect the
Fundamental Rights of the common users. Hence, it has also been provided in Rule 7 that
if the intermediary does not comply with the rules, it will lose its safe harbor immunity
granted under Section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000 and shall be liable for punishment under
any applicable law including the Information Technology  Act, 2000 and Indian Penal
Code, 1860.
 It has been rightly held by the Supreme Court that the right to privacy must be considered
in light of its function in society and balanced against other fundamental rights, such as
the need for competent authorities to prevent, investigate, and prosecute criminal
offenses, as well as safeguards against threats to public safety. When a compelling
countervailing interest is established, the right to privacy may be invaded. The Supreme
Court has ruled that originators persons/ institutions/ bodies of fake news content should
be held accountable even if it involves decryption of those messages for prevention,
detection, and investigation of such unlawful acts. This was affirmed in the Prajjwala
case, where the court had ordered the government to develop and follow the appropriate
guidelines/Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). To “eliminate child pornography, rape
and gang rape imagery, videos, and sites in content hosting platforms and other
applications”. 
Will the breaking of end-to-end encryption lead to snooping of conversation?
The answer is no. Every message, be it via SMS, e-mail, has a source code and a
destination code, and can be traced via it. This can happen without breaking either the
encryption or privacy policy,”1This ensures that there is no violation of privacy or
breaking of end-to-end encryption required to trace the originator. When law enforcement
agencies track mobile call data records to investigate crime, for example, they do not
listen in on phone conversations. 
In my opinion, there is a lot of misinformation regarding the IT Rules, 2021. The claims
of intermediaries that rules call for the breaking of end-to-end encryption are baseless as
the IT Rules, 2021 do not have any such provision which requires the breaking of end-to-
end encryption. They have been framed in consonance with the Apex court rulings and do
not suffer infirmity on grounds of violation of fundamental rights. These rules have been
framed to hold the perpetrators accountable for unlawful acts under Rule 4.

1
Rishi Raj, Whatsapp can tell on you without snooping, Financial Express(17th September, 2020)
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/whatsapp-can-tell-on-you-without-snooping/2203325/