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Rude Cell Phone Users Might Get Prison Time in India

by Peter Mychalcewycz on April 7, 2009 at 05:46 PM


If you are addicted to your 'CrackBerry,' or just generally love being plugged-in at all times, you may want to tone it down a bit on your next trip to India.

India's upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, has witnessed an explosion of cell phone use in the country (277 million users to date) and they are not particularly thrilled by it. According to the Times of London, the Committee on Petitions (an influential panel within the Rajya Sabha) declared that cell phone users "'often create nuisance'," and that "'[they] need to be educated where and how to use the device without annoying others.'"

The Rajya Sabha's blustery comments came after an Indian citizen named Gurjit Singh filed a petition demanding that restrictions be placed on cell phone users and that harsh penalties, including prison time, be brought down on those that disobey said rules. Singh believes that it should be illegal to carry cell phones at funerals or in temples, and that cell phone-jammers should be installed at schools to prevent students from placing calls.


Singh wants to require phone companies to disable a cell phone while its owner is driving, and believes a law should be enacted barring government employees from making personal calls on cell phones during office hours. He also believes camera phones should be banned "'for the safety of women'." These may seem like extreme measures (which they are), but they have received support from the Times of India (the most read English language paper in India) and from, obviously, the Rajya Sabha.

We have all dealt with annoying cell phone addicts and amateurs, but we don't want anyone doing hard time for it. Unless they run someone over while gabbing away. [From: The Times of London]

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Tags: cell phone, cell phone ban, cell phone drivers, CellPhone, CellPhoneBan, CellPhoneDrivers, crime and punishment, CrimeAndPunishment, india, law, top

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