The Supreme Court is ready to examine if directions given for seeking call detail records and hotel stays to prove allegations of adultery are a violation of the fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
A Bench of 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 the next hearing of the case.
In the order passed in May this year, the Delhi High Court had held that taking details of hotel room bookings and call details records (CDR) for proving adultery did not amount to violating the Right to Privacy.
Rekha Palli, the Justice of the High Court observed that the right to privacy is not an absolute right and is subject to restrictions if it comes to public interest.
The High Court, therefore, upheld a family court decision in which it allowed a woman’s application to seek records of a hotel room where her husband was allegedly stayed with a female friend. The Court also directed for the call details records to two phone numbers that belong to her husband.
However, the husband has appealed against the ruling challenge. In the appeal filed through Advocated Preeti Singh, the husband has put forth that the High Court has given expansive powers to the family court for the collection of evidence.
He also contended that the High Court’s reasoning was completely based on an incorrect reading of the top court\’s judgement decriminalizing adultery.
The High Court had referred to an observation of the Supreme Court judgement that a guilty of adultery will not be entitled to protections under Article 21 of the Constitution in some cases.
The husband also contended that in this era where matters like personal choice, gender equality, and LGBT rights are being taken into consideration, it’s not fair to say that the presence of a man and woman in public places like a park or restaurant is a clear indication of an adulterous relationship. Such types of view would take society years back, he added.
In the appeal, it was 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 a great level of injury to an individual‘s fundamental right of privacy,” the appeal stated further.”
It was the woman’s statement that her husband stayed at a Jaipur hotel with another lady and her daughter. So, the call details record and hotel records were crucial to prove the case of adultery, she argued.
However, on the direction of collection of evidence in the form of his call details record and hotel stay details amounted to a violation of not only his but also his friend’s right to privacy, the husband had contended.
He further argued that if the directions were followed, it would cause aspersions not only on the reputation and character of the woman friend whom he accidentally met at the hotel, but would also put a question mark on the paternity and legitimacy of the minor’s child.
The High Court reasoned that the information demanded by the wife would surely help determine the charge of adultery.
The Court also rejected the argument that the direction to collect such evidence amounts to a roving and fishing inquiry.
Justice Palli added that if a wife seeks the help of a court for finding evidence that would be quite effective in proving adultery by the husband, the court must take positive action to help her.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/supreme-court-hotel-stay-call-records-adultery-right-to-privacy
