After criticism, Govt rolls back order on ‘mandatory’ pre-installation of Sanchar Saathi App on mobile phones

By Sunil Kumar Batra

New Delhi, Dec 3 (BVI): Faced with widespread criticism, the central government today rolled back its decision regarding ‘mandatory’ pre-installation of ‘Sanchar Saathi’ app in mobile phone sets.

“The Government has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers,” said an official statement.

The rollback was announced in the wake of widespread criticism by various sections, including the main Opposition party, Congress, which saw the government move amounting to intrusion in privacy of the people.

Congress General Secretary and MP K C Venugopal had termed the government order regarding mandatory pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app as “beyond unconstitutional” and said the “Big brother cannot watch us”.

“The right to privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution,” Venugopal had posted on his social media handle X after the directive issued by the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) to the mobile phone manufacturers and  importers.

The DoT issued the directions dated 28.11.2025 mandating the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets that are intended for use in India under the provisions of the Telecom Cyber Security.

It wanted the mobile phone manufacturers and importers to:

i) Ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India;

ii) Ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted; and

iii) For all such devices that have been already been manufactured and are in sales channels in India, the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates.”

The government had asked the handset manufacturers and importers to comply with the direction in 90 days and report compliance within 120 day.

After the controversy, Union Telecommunication Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said the app can be deleted if users don’t want to use it.

The Ministry of Telecom, meanwhile, insisted that the app helps in “Jan Bhagidari” by all citizens in reporting on such bad actors and actions while protecting users themselves.

There is no other function other than protecting the users in the app and they can remove the app whenever they want, the Ministry said.

So far 1.4 crore users have downloaded this app and are contributing to information on 2000 fraud incidents per day, it said.

The number of users has been increasing rapidly and the mandate to install the app was meant to accelerate this process and make the app available to less aware citizens easily, the ministry said.

Just in the last one day, 6 lakh citizens have registered for downloading the App which is a 10x increase in its uptake, the ministry said, adding this was “affirmation of faith” by citizens on this App for protecting themselves provided to them by the Government.  (BVI)