In a curious twist to the telephone tapping case, the Hyderabad High Court was informed that the Telangana government kept the centre informed about its plan to intercept certain phone number of Andhra Pradesh government functionaries.
So, it is clear that the tapping was done with the full knowledge of the NDA government in which the aggrieved party TDP government is partner.
According to the union government Telangana sought the permission of the Centre before intercepting the phone of some functionaries of Andhra Pradesh government.
This was revealed by additional solicitor general of India, Natarajan in the High Court yesterday when the petitions filed by TS came up for hearing. While arguing in support of interception of the phones by Telangana government, Natarajan said, Section 2 of Indian Telegraphic Act authorizes the governments to take control of the telephone lines of licensed telephone operators for interception. ” The state of Telangana had sought the opinion of the centre before intercepting certain telephone conversations and entire correspondence regarding the interception is a privileged document. It can not be disclosed or forced to be disclosed before a court of law,” Natarajan clarified.
Telangana government, which is opposed to the revealing of the call data as it would be violative of Telegraphic Act, filed petition seeking quashing of Vijayawada Chief Metropolitan Court order that asked telecom operators to disclose the call date of the phones they tapped.
The bench of Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar said the petition was maintainable and ordered the Vijawada court to handover the sealed cover to High Court, and adjourned the case for four weeks.
Last week, the Supreme Court asked operators to furnish the data in a sealed cover to trial court.
After the hearing the arguments from both the sides against and in favor of furnishing the call data, the High Court asked the mobile phone service providers to furnish the data to Vijayawada Court which should be sent to the High Court through a special messenger by Vijawada court.
Eminent advocate Ram Jethmalani, who appeared on behalf of the Telangana government,argued that government had the right to intercept phone calls and asking for data from operators operating from another state was an attack on the state.
Another eminent advocate Venugopal appeared for Andhra Pradesh.
