Recording Phone calls Is Not Violation of Privacy in Marital Disputes, Says SC

Recording partner's call privately is not violation of anyone's privacy says supreme court on Monday. This decision upholds an earlier High Court ruling that recording a wife's phone conversations without her knowing is a violation of her fundamental right to privacy. Bench comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma ruled that, ""If the marriage has reached a stage where spouses are actively snooping on each other, that is in itself a symptom of a broken relationship and denotes a lack of trust between them." 

The Supreme Court has ruled that secretly recorded conversations are admissible evidence in divorce cases. It further clarified that spousal privilege under Section 122 of the Indian Evidence Act is not absolute due to existing exceptions within the provision.

SC stated that, "We do not think there is any breach of privacy in this case. In fact, Section 122 of Evidence Act does not recognise any such right. On the other hand, it carves out an exception to right to privacy between spouses and therefore cannot be applied horizontally at all".

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A Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenges Justice Lisa Gill's Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment. The High Court sided with a woman who claimed her husband violated her right to privacy by using a CD of her recorded phone calls as evidence. The Family Court in Bathinda had admitted the recordings to support the husband's claims of cruelty under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.