Census, NPR databases and websites declared ‘protected system’ under IT Act

The notification means that any tampering or unauthorised access to the data will be punishable by ten years imprisonment

The websites and applications related to the decennial Census exercise and the National Population Register (NPR) were on November 7, 2022 notified as “protected system” or “Critical Information Infrastructure” under the Information Technology Act, 2008.

The notification means that any tampering or unauthorised access to the data associated with Census applications, NPR database or the data centres of the Registrar General of India (RGI) will be punishable by ten years imprisonment.

The RGI notified on November 7, 2022 that under Section 70 of the IT Act, the Central Government declares the “computer resources relating to the Census Monitoring & Management Svstem (CMMS) Web Portal. Self Enumeration (SE) Web Portal. Civil RegIstration System Web Portal, Mobile applications for House Listing (HL), Population Enumeration (PE) and National Population Register (NPR) Updation and lined Databases including NPR Database, Census Database and CRS Database, computer resources setup/installed at National Data Centre (NDC), RGI, Delhi and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) & Data Centre (DC) at Bengaluru and Lucknow, being Critical Information Infrastructure (CI) of the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, and the computer resources of their associated dependencies to be ‘Protected Systems’ for the purposes of the said Act.”

Section 70 of the IT Act states that the appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare any computer resource which directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical Information Infrastructure, to be a protected system.

“Critical Information Infrastructure means the computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which , shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health, or safety,” the Act says.