Andhra Pradesh High Court asks State, Centre to file counter

Nelapadu (Amaravati): The Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court took a serious note of the phone tapping while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Sravan Kumar here on Tuesday.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheswari and Justice D Ramesh heard the petition which contended that it was invasion on the privacy of the influential persons in the society to tap their phones which was nothing but encroachment on their fundamental rights. The petition also stated that a top officer was given the task of tapping the phones of the judges. The movement of all the judges was being monitored every minute, it stated.

When the Division Bench asked the petitioner whether he had any evidence to prove his contention, the petitioner said that he would file an affidavit with all the details. The petitioner also stated that there was a larger conspiracy to degrade the judiciary which was evident by the postings in the social media abusing and humiliating the judges and the revelations in the audio tapes of former judge Justice Eswaraiah. The petitioner demanded full inquiry by the CBI into the whole episode.

However, Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy pointed out that in any public interest litigation the source of information is absolutely important for its maintainability. In the present petition, the source of information is not reliable and looks like a child's play. He also said that the newspaper article reads as if a judge of the High Court had spoken to the media house about the tapping.

It is hard to believe that a judge of this High Court would have spoken to a media house about the phone tapping.

The newspaper article itself was contemptuous, he said recalling that the state government had already issued a defamation notice to the newspaper in question and steps would be initiated for further legal action.

Reacting to the contention of the Additional Advocate General, the Division Bench asked him whether the phone tapping issue is trivial in his opinion. The Chief Justice asked the government to file an affidavit as to why a full inquiry would not be ordered into the whole issue. The bench also asked the Central government to file counter. The service providers were also asked to file affidavits.

The Division Bench posted the matter for next hearing on August 20.