NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that prevented a man from using secret phone call recordings or surveillance of his wife as evidence in divorce proceedings, while noting that these recordings wouldn’t be considered a “a violation of privacy.” A two-judge bench, comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, said, “We do not think there is any breach of privacy in this case. Section 122 of the Evidence Act does not recognise any such right. On the other hand, it carves out an exception to the right to privacy between spouses and therefore, cannot be applied horizontally at all.”Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana HC Judge Justice Lisa Gill had held that recording a wife’s telephonic conversations or snooping on her amounted to “clear breach of privacy” of her fundamental right and thereby cannot be admitted as evidence before a Family Court during the matrimonial proceedings or case.Before the HC verdict, a Family Court in Bathinda had allowed a husband to rely on certain recordings of phone calls against his wife to support claims of cruelty.Later, the woman challenged this in the HC, saying that the recordings were made by her husband without her knowledge or consent and violated her fundamental right to privacy. The HC accepted the wife’s plea and ruled the evidence inadmissible, stating that surreptitious recording amounted to a clear breach of privacy and was legally unjustified.
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