"Madras HC: Right to Privacy Protects Spousal Privacy, Bars Snooping by Spouses"

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled that the right to privacy, which is a fundamental right, also applies to privacy between spouses. In this ruling, the court stated that any evidence obtained by violating a spouse's privacy is not allowed in court. This decision was made in a case where a lower court had previously allowed a husband to use his wife's call records as evidence in his divorce case. The High Court overturned that decision. In a 17-page order, Justice G.R. Swaminathan said the law cannot assume that marital misconduct is common, nor can it support or encourage one spouse spying on the other. The judge noted that getting information about a spouse’s private life without their permission is not acceptable. He stressed that if the court allows evidence obtained through spying, it could lead to more instances of spouses secretly surveilling each other. The court made this ruling in response to a petition by a woman whose husband, without her knowledge, had obtained her call records from a private mobile operator. The husband filed for divorce in 2019, claiming cruelty, adultery, and desertion by his wife. Justice Swaminathan pointed out that the husband had downloaded the call records from the Jio website without his wife's consent, which was a clear invasion of her privacy. The judge also addressed concerns that proving misconduct in marriage would become harder without such evidence, suggesting that there are other ways, such as using legal questions (interrogatories), to prove such claims. In summary, this ruling emphasizes that spousal privacy is protected by law, and evidence obtained by violating this privacy is inadmissible.