A recent judgement of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stirred an online debate — “Can you spy on your wife’s WhatsApp and use it as evidence in divorce case ?” Let’s find out:The Indian Constitution under article 21, guarantees Right to Privacy as a fundamental right. In addition, accessing any computer system without consent is against the provisions of IT Act, which may attract jail term.The case: The case involves a Gwalior couple married in 2016 and had a daughter the next year. However, tensions in their relationship flared up soon-after. In 2018, the husband alleging cruelty and adultery moved the court for divorce.To support his claims he submitted WhatsApp messages of his wife, which were forwarded to his device through a spy app secretly installed on her phone.What the court said:A bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court held that though privacy is safeguarded under Article 21 of the Constitution, it is not absolute. When privacy collides with the constitutional guarantee to a fair trial, the latter may prevail, especially under Section 14 of the Family Courts Act, 1984, which allows flexibility in admitting evidence otherwise barred under the Evidence Act.The High Court emphasised that “relevance,” not the legality of collection, governs admissibility.Nevertheless, family courts must carefully assess authenticity of the evidence to avoid misuse (Sections 65A and 65B of Evidence act and Section 57 and 63 (4) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam).The judgment underscores the growing significance of digital evidence in matrimonial disputes and may reshape how privacy and justice intersect in Indian family law. Recently, the Supreme Court of India too allowed admission of secretly recorded calls as evidence in divorce cases.
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