Maintaining that the interception of phone call of some persons in Andhra Pradesh was lawful , the Telangana state government on Tuesday filed two petitions in Hyderabad High Court and urged the Court to strike down the Vijayawada Metropolitan court order directing mobile operators to furnish the call data of the phones tapped by them.
The TS argued that the interception was resorted to maintain public order hence lawful. It also said the Vijayawada court had no jurisdiction over what happened in Hyderabad.
Close on the heels of cash-for-vote unearthed by Telangana ACB, Andhra Pradesh government also initiated an investigation into the alleged tapping of phones by T-ACB. AP police suspected that even the phone of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was also tapped. AP set up a Special Invetigative Team (SIT) to dig into the phone tapping. In the Process the police filed a petition in Vijayawada metro political court asking for direction to mobile operators to furnish the call data of the phone they tapped. Operators approached Supreme Court which asked them to furnish the call data in a sealed cover to the Vijayawada trial court and asked them to move High Court for the redress of their grievance.
Now, the TS contended that the disclosure of lawful interception of telephone talk on the casual pretext of illegal phone-tapping would only boost anti-state and anti-national activists besides endangering the lives of those involved in curbing such illegal activities.