A Division Bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice J.K. Maheswari, has directed the petitioner who filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) over reports in a section of the media alleging tapping of telephones of the High Court judges to file a supporting affidavit on Wednesday, and postponed the next hearing to Thursday.
The High Court has also asked the petitioner to name the IPS Officer, who, according to the petitioner, has been overseeing the alleged operation, and produce all the evidence before the court in the affidavit.
‘Conclusive evidence’
High Court advocate Sravan, arguing on behalf of the petitioner, said he had conclusive evidence on the role of an IPS officer who allegedly led the operation.
Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General P. Sudhakar Reddy and Government Pleader Sumon, who argued on behalf of the government, said the source of information was absolutely important for the PIL to be “maintainable.” They also said that in the present PIL, the petitioner’s source of information was not reliable and looked like a “childish play.”
The Chief Justice intervened and pointed out that it was not a “child’s play” when media reports appear suggesting that phones of the judges could have been tapped, and said the court would go into the depth of the issue.
The Government Pleader also said that the newspaper article read as if a judge of the High Court had spoken to a media house about the tapping.
Defamation notice
“We do not believe that a judge of the High Court would have spoken to a media house on the issue. So, this makes the article contemptuous. We urge the court to make the media house a party to the petition,” he said.
The Additional Advocate General informed that the State government had issued a defamation notice to the newspaper, and was also taking steps to initiate further legal action.
