Recording Wife’s Phone Conversation Without Her Knowledge Is Infringement Of Privacy: HC

New Delhi: Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that recording wife’s telephonic conversation without her knowledge amounts to infringement of her privacy.

Justice Lisa Gill passed the order recently while hearing a petition filed by a woman who challenged a 2020 order passed by Bathinda family court.

The family court had allowed the woman’s husband to prove a CD with recorded conversations between him and his wife, subject to its correctness.

“Recording of telephonic conversation of the wife without her knowledge is a clear-cut infringement of her privacy,” Justice Gill observed.

“Furthermore, it cannot be said or ascertained as to the circumstances in which the conversations were held or the manner in which response elicited by a person, who was recording the conversations, because it is evident that these conversations would necessarily have been recorded surreptitiously by one of the parties,” the order further stated.

The couple, whose marriage was solemnised in 2009, have a daughter. The husband in 2017 filed a divorce petition, The Indian Express reported.

During cross-examination, the husband moved an application in July 2019, seeking permission to submit supplementary affidavit with the CD and transcripts of conversations recorded in memory card or the mobile phone’s chip.

Last year, the family court allowed the husband to prove the CD on condition of its correctness. The wife then approached the high court.