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phones by a third party by secret means. The word ‘phone tapping’ also means
commenced in the USA in the 1890s after the invention of the telephone
personal liberty under Article 21, its meaning and scope of personal liberty was
enshrined under the Indian Constitution but also under Article 17 of the
of a man's private life.
law. Now, SC in a number of cases has ruled that the right to hold a telephonic
any person licensed under the said provision of Indian Telegraph Act.
The terms 'intercept' and 'interception' have not been defined anywhere in the
Indian Telegraph Act and the same is needed to be understood in light of the
then Janata Dal gadfly, who made the dramatic charge that the government was
the Government. The matter went to the SC through a public interest petition
filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties, i.e. the PUCL case (1996).
first step under Section 5(2) of the Telegraph Act is the occurrence or
Thereafter, the competent and concerned authority under section 5(2) of the
of the state's surveillance powers. After the PUCL case, the Centre bought some
referring the ruling of the Court in the P.U.C.L case, it was held that "For the
powers under Section 5(1) and (2) of the Telegraph Act, 1885 the happening of
any public emergency or the existence of a public safety interest is the sine qua
non (mandatory)."
The Telegraph Act also gave safeguards against illegal and gratuitous
High Court held that the act of tapping by the husband of the conversation of his
wife with others was illegal and it violated the right of privacy of the wife. In
the said case the husband was recording the conversations of his wife.
Conclusion
Remedies that are available to aggrieved persons can be that in cases where
An FIR can be lodged when illicit phone interception comes into the knowledge
of the person. Moreover, the aggrieved person can move to the Court against the