HC issues notices to Union and State governments, says telephone tapping issue of grave concern

The HC had taken up suo moto an English daily’s report, which stated that the mobile phone of one of the HC judges was tapped in an illegal operation of eavesdropping by some police officers, as writ petition the previous day.

Ordering notices to the Central and State governments in a suo moto taken up writ petition on ‘telephone tapping’, Telangana High Court on Tuesday observed the ‘matter was of grave concern’.

A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, which had taken up hearing of the writ petition, directed the respondents to file affidavits on the matter within three weeks. The HC had taken up suo moto an English daily’s report, which stated that the mobile phone of one of the HC judges was also tapped in an illegal operation of eavesdropping by some police officers, as writ petition the previous day.

When the matter came up for hearing, CJ Alok Aradhe noted that as an institution all were concerned with the issue of phone tapping and described it as matter of serious concern. Justice T. Vinod Kumar said that the matter amounted to invasion of privacy. This involved security concerns of the nation, the judge observed.

Former Advocate General of Telangana, K. Ramakrishna Reddy, who volunteered to assist the court in adjudication of the plea, appealed to the bench to consider the Supreme Court ruling in the case of People’s Union of Civil Liberties vs Union of India in the present matter. The CJ, however, told him that the matter was not at the stage of presenting arguments.

The bench told him that he would be given an opportunity to present his contentions at the stage of commencing arguments. Additional Advocate General Mohammed Imran Khan, appearing for the State, informed the bench that investigation by police into telephone tapping was in progress. Deputy Solicitor General of India Gadi Praveen Kumar accepted notice on behalf of the Union government.