This post is written by Adv. Gurpreet Das. Gurpreet’s research interests are commercial laws, privacy, technology and drone laws.
The technological development and its use in our daily life have made the human life simpler. In every field, it is difficult for us to achieve the goal without the use of technology. The technologies are implemented in every sectors including health, education, automobiles industries, all types of manufacturing industries, emergency services, agriculture, engineering services, entertainment industry, military applications, energy industry, e-commerce, weather forecasting, environmental monitoring and so on. Drone is one such technology. Generally, the drone also referred to as the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system as per 3(i) of rules 2021, which can fly in the sky is remotely controlled by the ground operator through a controller and communication systems.
Rule 4 and 5 of the Drone rules, 2021 deals with categorization and classification of Unmanned aircraft system, which classifies UAS in three categories, [1] aeroplane, [b] rotocraft, [c] hybrid unmanned aircraft system and each of these are further categorised as, [1] remotely piloted aircraft system, [2] model remotely piloted aircraft system, [3] autonomous unmanned aircraft system.[i]
The drones or UAS are categorized based on their weight such as:
- Nano Drone: ≤ 250 grams.
- Micro Drone: 250 grams to 2kg.
- Small: 2kg to 25kg.
- Medium: 25kg to 150kg.
- Large: > 150kg. Till March 2019, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) has registered 19,553 for fly in Indian sky.
DRONES : E-COMMERCE SECTOR
Swiggy, one of the leading brands in online food delivery has made headlines recently when they announced about using drones for Instamart grocery delivery. However, Swiggy is not the first one in the row, big brands like amazon have also promised drone usage worldwide.
Drone flights are an emerging technology in the realm of aviation, not just in India but all across the world. Drones may be utilised for police enforcement, as shown in the lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak[ii], leisure activities, such as weddings, wildlife monitoring, and, most critically, e-commerce delivery.[iii]
As our demands grow, so does our approach to meeting them. Because it is hard for humans to be in numerous places at the same time, technologies such as drones are in great demand. As a result, prominent firms like Amazon, who previously stated that they will begin training drones for deliveries, and Swiggy, who just announced their market strategy of employing drone technology for their instamart grocery delivery project, are taking the same approach. Swiggy has also got conditional approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to undertake BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flights, which is the most significant part of drone flights, and is planning to begin drone experiments.[iv]
However, It is not as easy as it seems to fly a RPAs (Remotely piloted aircraft system) and this is so due to involvement of big stakeholders that are involved in registration and related procedures of such system, resulting which you have to wait for a longer period of time and deal with complexities of procedures as without registering your system in digital sky platform, no one is allowed to use a drone as rules mentions[v], also it mentions that, “No individual other than a holder of a valid remote pilot license enlisted on the digital sky platform shall operate an unmanned aircraft system.”[vi]
In case of commercial use , the list of stakeholders is even longer which includes Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which would issue UIN No. (“Unique Identification Number”)[vii] and is also responsible for cancelling or suspending such UIN no. in case user violate the rules and regulations.[viii] Apart from DGCA, Ministry of home Affairs, Ministry of defence, Indian Air Force, Airport Authority of India and even local police officers may be involved for different clearances and approvals that depends where and how you want to fly a drone and thus differs from case to case.[ix] For, eg- One requires a drone with camera to fly over certain areas where photography is banned, then you may require approvals from Ministry of defence.
Apart from lengthy and technical procedures, there are other probable lapses that may occur, for Swiggy and other platforms, like Drones used by E-commerce companies for delivery may not be permitted in certain areas, or special approvals may be considered necessary for those regions due to security threats or sensitive spots to terrorism, or there may be a complete ban on drones in such areas, potentially making these areas a no-fly zone for such E-commerce companies. As a consequence, E-commerce companies may not be able to bring their products to every client in a town. Apart from such concerns, one of the main debatable concern is of citizen’s privacy security.
FLYING DRONES: CONCERN OF PRIVACY, DATA PROTECTION SURROUNDING THE DRONE LAWS
In recent years India is on the path of liberalising rules and regulations for easy flight of drones, however, in race of competing with other nations and becoming technologically more developed, privacy of citizens is on stake. Be it personal privacy or data privacy, drones can be a great threat to both and absence of provisions or preventive measure related to it in the drone rules, 2021 itself makes it more alarming.
Firstly, we do not have well codified data protection laws in the country and we are still struggling to get one codified law on data protection but with respect to privacy, we are well aware that every citizen has right to privacy through Article 21 of the constitution and whether it is being violated through flight of drones or not is the question.
Answer is yes, drones are outfitted with a wide camera lens with night mode that includes keeping airborne and observe a large area without being detected. Drones employ doppler effect that can permeate walls and monitor individuals even while they are at home.[x]
Since these unmanned aerial vehicles undertake delivery runs, they will also be taking photographs and analyzing information in communities around the state, compromising citizens’ privacy. In such circumstances, there is no transparency or accountability. Though UAS Rules, 2021 had little observation about the privacy but unfortunately now they are replaced with The Drone Rules, 2021, that remain totally mute about it.
THE DRONE RULES, 2021: IS THIS A GOOD LAW?
The main rules and regulations concerned with drone flight, registration and procedural compliances are the Drone Rules 2021, which replaced the UAS rules, 2021. The major highlights about the rules are as follows:
- Section 2 deals with the applicability of rules r.t weight categories. It states that the Rules are applicable to all drones with maximum all-up-weights of up to 500 kgs which are registered in India or being operated over India.
- Section 5 defines the sub-categories of unmanned aircraft systems that can be operated either autonomously or remotely- are based only on weight.
- Every kind of drone requires a ‘Type Certificate’, for which an application can be filed on the Digital Sky platform along with payment of fees. The Type Certificate has to be issued within 75 days of the form being filled. However, the standards for obtaining a Type Certificate are yet to be specified by the Quality Council of India. The provisions that deal with the type certificates are Sections 6, 7, 8, 9, and 13.
- As per Sections 14, 15, and 16, an application for registration should be made by 31stDecember 2021 for drones manufactured in India or imported before 30th November 2021.
- In order to be competent pilot, a person requires a remote license under Sections 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 of the said rules. Further, the person should be between 18 and 65 years of age, have passed 10thstandard, and have completed training from an authorized remote pilot training organization.
- Insurance plays a vital role in the drone industry as all owners of drones except nano drones are required to obtain third party insurance for the drones before operation as per Section 44 of the said rules.
- With increasing demand for the drones, the import of the said product is also increasing. The impugned rules also regulate the import of drones in India
Apart from these, the rules have penalty for non-adherence to these rules and regulations and other provisions such as cancellation or suspension of the certificate, training programms etc. However, while replacing the previous set of rules, namely UAS, 2021, the drone rules fail to consider one very crucial aspect of privacy protection.
Also, recently, requirement of remote pilot license has been replaced with certificate through Drone (Amednment) Rules, 2021, making it more easier and liberal for people to fly drones.
THE WAY AHEAD …..
On path of being technological savy, we cannot abrogate other rights like privacy and security and thus Drone laws require modifications and strong penalisation and regulations for controlling breach of privacy and theft of data. Also, apart from commercial use, with respect to flight of drones for recreational activities and fun, there is need of codifies regulations as well.
Also read: Let’s make some space for gender and sexuality
[i] Rule 4, 5, The Drone Rules, 2021
[ii] Renu Gupta and Akshat Bhushan, ‘How the drone rules threaten the right to privacy’, 27 Oct, 2021
[iii] Rama Prasanna Dalai and Dr. Sidharth Sabyasachi, Future of Drone Technology in India, 15, Xi’an S.U (2019).
[iv] Pranav Mukul, ‘Explained: How Swiggy’s trials into drone-based deliveries will work’, May 1 2022.
[v] Rule 14, The Drone Rules, 2021
[vi] Rule 31, The Drone Rules, 2021
[vii] Rule 3 (za) , number issued for registering an unmanned aircraft system in India, The Drone Rules, 2021
[viii] Rule 53, The Drone Rules, 2021
[ix] ‘Drone Laws in India’, Drone Laws for a safer airspace.
[x] Jay Stanley and Catherine Crump, ‘ Protecting privacy from aerial surveillance: Recommendations for government use of drone aircraft’, Dec. 2011.
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