![]() The closest that Indian legislation comes to addressing communication cables is “The Indian Telegraph Act 1885” (1885 Act). ![]() ![]() Further this term has been used in the context of facilitating access of submarine cables to cable landing stations in India rather than ensuring their protection. The term ‘international submarine cable’ has been used and defined in the “ International Telecommunication Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations Regulations 2007”, but has been defined using the term ‘submarine cable’ without elaborating on what it constitutes. Indian legislation, on the other hand, does not define a submarine cable. Continuing on, an international submarine cable is defined (albeit for the purposes of that legislation) as “that part of a line link that is laid on or beneath the seabed that lies beneath Australian waters or for purposes that include connecting a place in Australia with a place outside Australia (whether or not the cable is laid via another place in Australia) … and includes any device attached to that part of the line link… used in or in connection with the line link”. A “line link”, therefore, links two distinct places. Within this expression, a ‘line’ itself “is defined as a wire, cable, optical fibre, tube, conduit, waveguide or other physical medium used, or for use, as a continuous artificial guide for or in connection with carrying communications by means of guided electromagnetic energy”. As such, it offers an excellent example of a “best practice” that India’s own legal and maritime-strategic communities would do exceedingly well to study.Īustralia’s domestic “Telecommunications Act” under reference defines a submarine cable as a specific type of “line link”. Schedule 3A of Australia’s “Telecommunications Act 1997” (as amended and in force on 2 March 2019) specifies in considerable detail, the legal regime for the protection of international submarine cables landing in Australia. An exception is Australia, which “…is one of only a few nations with a dedicated regime for the protection of submarine cables”. Even at the domestic level, at least amongst countries of the Indo-Pacific, there appears to be a very worrisome dearth in the degree of legal comprehensiveness with which this subject has been dealt. The term “submarine cable” has been widely used, including in international treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea, but very little attempt appears to have been made to define it or to address the systems and networks associated with the term, at the international level. While rapid technological advancements have transformed the submarine communications cable from a copper-based telegraph cable in 1850 to advanced fibre-optic cables today connecting continents across the globe ( Figure 1 refers), the development of the legal and regulatory mechanism to protect such cables from damage and interception leaves much to be desired. The article strongly recommends that submarine communications cables landing in India be included within India’s “Critical Information Infrastructure System” (CIIS), and, that India exercise prescriptive jurisdiction over such submarine cables even under the High Seas, under the principle of “protective jurisdiction”.įig 1: HMN TeleGeography Submarine Cables Map In seeking to mitigate the vulnerabilities attending submarine cables in India, Part-2 of this article will address legal aspects that ought to be of interest (and concern) to the Indian Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Branch, the Legal & Treaties Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Telecommunications, and, the Ministry of Law and Justice, as also to legal academic and research institutes in India and the larger Indian Ocean Region. This piece also speaks directly to authorities within the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard, as well as to other organisational structures concerned with India’s national security and the physical and electronic protection of India critical infrastructure. This two-part article aims to provide Indian policy-makers and lay readers alike with an overview of submarine communications cable systems in India, highlighting their criticality, their vulnerabilities, and the inadequate protection they receive under national and international law.
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