The High Court asked the government why it should not direct the state to block the use of stolen, unauthorised, and illegal mobile phones by using international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers.
It asked the government on Monday to respond to the court’s order for explanation within four weeks.
IMEI is unique 15-digit identification number of a mobile handset unique to it. It is like the fingerprint of a person.
A division bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain issued the rule following a writ petition filed by Mobile Phone User Development Society, a private organisation.
The organisation recently filed the writ petition seeking directives to the government to block the IMEI of handsets that are stolen, illegal, unauthorised and unapproved from being used.
The secretaries to the ministry of law, home and post and telecommunications, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and national monitoring cell of the home ministry have been made respondents to the rule.
The Department of Telecommunication of India disconnected all the mobile handsets without IMEI number last year to stop misuse of lost, stolen, snatched, illegal and unapproved mobile phone sets.
Recently, intelligence agencies in Bangladesh traced the culprits, who launched a bomb attack on lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh, using the IMEI numbers of the criminals. The criminals had used brand new SIMs but investigators were able to catch them as they used their old handsets.
One can check the IMEI of a GSM mobile handset by pressing *#06#. No two mobile handsets in the world should have the same IMEI number.
