The Supreme Court is all set to examine if the order for getting calling details and hotel stay to prove allegations of adultery are a violation of the fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
A Two-Judges Bench comprising Justices Krishna Murari and PV Sanjay Kumar, was hearing an appeal against a Delhi High Court ruling on the issue. On Tuesday, the Court gave the respondent time to file a reply before posting the case for hearing on August 7.
The order passed in May this year, the Delhi High Court had held that the order for collecting details of call records and hotel stay for proving adultery did not amount to violating ‘right to privacy’.
Justice Rekha Palli, the justice of the High Court observed that the right to privacy is not an absolute right, and is subject to reasonable restrictions especially if they are related to public interest.
The High Court, therefore, upheld a family court decision to allow a woman’s petition to summon a hotel room’s records for determining if her husband were stayed with any other woman. The Court also ordered for the Call details records of two phone numbers belonging to the husband.
However, the husband challenged the ruling. He filed an appeal through Advocate Preeti Singh highlighting that the High Court has allowed expansive powers to the family court of evidence collection.
He further contended that the High Court’s reason was based on an incorrect reading of the top court’s judgment decriminalising adultery.
In the case, the High Court had given a reference of a Supreme Court judgement in which it stated that those guilty of adultery will not be entitled to protections in some cases under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The appellant has contended that in such time where matters related to personal choice, gender equality and LGBT rights are being taken into consideration, saying that the presence of a man and woman in a public place like a park or restaurant is an adulterous act, is not fair. He further added that such kind of view would take our society back to the old days.
The appeal further stated, “If Family Courts themselves start bearing the burden to establish grounds of divorce and thereby start summoning the personal documents of individuals it would cause great level of injury to an individual ‘s fundamental right of privacy.”
It was the woman’s case in which she stated that her husband stayed at a Jaipur hotel with one of his female friends and her daughter. So, the call details record and also the hotel stay details were necessary to prove adultery on husband, she argued.
On the other hand, the husband had contended that the trial court’s directions amounted to violation of not only his but also his female friend’s right to privacy.
He also argued that if the directions would be followed, it would cause grave aspersions not only on the character of the woman whom he met coincidentally at the hotel but would also put a question mark on the legitimacy and paternity of the woman’s minor child.
The High Court said that the information sought by the wife would surely be relevant for proving the allegations of adultery.
The Court also rejected that the argument that the direction to produce the above-mentioned records amounts to a roving and fishing inquiry.
Justice Palli added that if a wife seeks the help of a court for procuring evidence that would prove relevant to prove the adultery of a husband, the court must take steps.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/supreme-court-hotel-stay-call-records-adultery-right-to-privacy
