The Rajasthan High Court has invalidated three phone tapping orders issued by the State’s Home Ministry, emphasizing that surveillance without proper procedural safeguards violates an individual’s right to privacy.
Justice Birendra Kumar highlighted that the Indian Telegraph Act incorporates procedural safeguards to prevent arbitrary violations of privacy, which must be strictly followed. The Court emphasized that disregarding these safeguards, as well as Supreme Court directives in previous cases, would lead to contempt and arbitrariness.
The State’s Home Ministry had issued three orders in 2020 and 2021 to intercept the mobile phone of bribery suspects, including the petitioner. The phone tapping was justified under the Indian Telegraph Act, alleging the petitioner’s involvement in bribery of a public servant.
The petitioner challenged the interception orders, arguing that the State’s surveillance of their mobile phone violated their right to privacy. After considering the arguments, the Court found that the orders lacked sufficient explanation for justifying the surveillance in the interest of public safety, as required by the Telegraph Act.
As a result, the Court deemed the orders arbitrary and in violation of the petitioner’s constitutional rights. The Court nullified all three interception orders and ordered the authorities to obliterate the intercepted messages and recordings. Furthermore, it clarified that the intercepted messages from the petitioner’s mobile phone would not be considered in the ongoing criminal proceedings.
