Karnataka HC directs telecom operators to review how SIM cards are activated without customers’ consent

The Karnataka High Court has directed the state police to ask telecom operators, including Jio and Vodafone, to review how they prevent SIM cards from being activated in people’s names without their knowledge. Justice Suraj Govindaraj asked the Director General of Police (DGP), Cyber Command, Karnataka, to issue the directions and listed the case for November 27 for the DGP to report on compliance.

The order, dated September 29, came in a case against a former Jio promoter in Bengaluru. Police allegedly found him in possession of 75 SIM cards activated using other people’s Aadhaar numbers and photographs. The court refused to quash the criminal case against him.

“A SIM card is not merely a device for accessing a telecommunications network. It is also capable of being used as an instrument for establishing digital identity, receiving one-time passwords, registering online accounts, communicating with financial institutions and accessing services linked to a mobile number,” Justice Govindaraj said.

What has the court directed?

The DGP, Cyber Command, is to direct telecom operators to review the following:

Promoters and distributors: How operators appoint, authorise and supervise the people who sell SIM cards on their behalf, including records of cards issued to and returned by each person.
Tracking SIM cards: Whether operators can match the SIM cards given to distributors against those sold, returned or cancelled, and flag any discrepancies.
Unusual activations: Whether operators can identify repeated or unusual activations linked to a single distributor or point of sale.
Customer verification: Whether operators’ verification procedures prevent people’s identity documents from being used without their knowledge.
Complaints: Whether customers can easily report SIM cards activated in their names and whether operators inform them once an unauthorised activation is confirmed.
Training: Whether operators inform promoters and distributors about the limits of their authority and the consequences of activating, retaining or handing out SIM cards without permission.

The DGP is also to examine how criminals use such SIM cards to commit cyber offences and instruct local police to act promptly on information about them.

“Nothing in these directions shall be construed as authorising indiscriminate surveillance, unrestricted access to customer data or disclosure of personal information otherwise than in accordance with law,” the court said.

What was the case about?

Bengaluru’s HAL police registered a case in September 2022. They alleged that the promoter, Mallikarjuna, used the Aadhaar numbers and photographs of customers who came to buy SIM cards to activate additional SIM cards, which he then tried to sell at higher prices. Police allegedly found 55 Jio SIM cards and 20 Vodafone SIM cards, activated in different people’s names, in his possession. He faces charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating by impersonation and cheating under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Mallikarjuna argued that Jio had given him the SIM cards to sell as part of his job and that he had neither activated nor sold them. A Jio area manager told the police that promoters receive only inactive SIM cards, which customers activate after purchasing them.

The court said his job could explain his possession of the Jio cards, but “does not, at this stage, explain his possession of 20 SIM cards belonging to Vodafone.” The manager’s statement, read alongside the allegation that the cards were already activated in other people’s names, “raises a material question as to how such SIM cards came into the possession of the petitioner,” the court said. It held that a trial was necessary to resolve these questions.

The court added that it had neither found Mallikarjuna guilty nor established that anyone had used the SIM cards to commit other offences.

Why it matters:

Someone else could use a SIM card activated in your name without your knowledge. Banks, payment apps and online services send one-time passwords to mobile numbers. This means a fraudster could use such a SIM card to open accounts, receive money and make scam calls, while the trail leads back to you. Such SIM cards “may facilitate the concealment of the identity of the actual user and complicate the tracing of persons involved in unlawful activities,” the court said. They may also “expose such individuals to identity misuse, financial fraud and other forms of cybercrime.”

Investigations have repeatedly traced such SIM cards to the agents and distributors who sell them on behalf of telecom operators:

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), 2025: The CBI booked 39 point-of-sale agents in May 2025 for issuing “ghost” SIM cards. It also found that around 1,930 agents had issued SIM cards in other people’s names. Agents allegedly told customers that their verification had failed, asked them to try again and sold the second SIM card to cybercriminals.
Chhattisgarh, September 2026: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and telecom operators blacklisted an agent who allegedly activated 25 connections using people’s identity documents without their consent.
Telangana, 2018: Police arrested a Vodafone distributor who allegedly activated 6,000 SIM cards using Aadhaar details downloaded from a state government department, following a complaint by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

DoT has introduced rules for SIM card dealers and taken action against fake connections after their activation:

It made police verification of SIM card dealers mandatory and discontinued bulk connections in August 2023.
In July 2026, it disconnected more than 88 lakh connections that its artificial intelligence tool had flagged and that failed re-verification.
It has warned that fraudulent SIM issuance can lead to up to three years in prison and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh under the Telecommunications Act, 2023.

The court’s directions address the gap between these two measures by focusing on the point of sale, where SIM cards are issued and activated. People can check the connections registered in their names through DoT’s Sanchar Saathi portal. The court has now asked operators to inform affected customers themselves.