Judicial fraternity urges CJ to take up phone tapping issue on suo moto basis

Hyderabad: Judicial fraternity on Wednesday urged the Telangana High Court Chief Justice Alok Aradhe to take up on a suo motu basis the reports of the previous BRS government ordering tapping of a High Court judge’s phone.

The advocate fraternity also requested the Chief Justice to order a thorough probe into the issue either by a central agency or any other independent agency. The advocates are of the opinion that the phone tapping amounts to breach of privacy of an individual and hence it cannot be ordered.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, K. Ramakrishna Reddy, former Advocate General of Telangana, said: “Based on the confession statement of an officer of the SP cadre about the snooping of the High Court judge`s phone, the High Court can take up the issue on a suo-moto basis. The Chief Justice can order officials to produce the records in front of him and also order an inquiry into the matter by either central agency or judicial probe,” Reddy said.

L. Ravichander, designated senior counsel, said those who tried to undermine the judiciary must be punished. He appealed to the registry of the High Court to register a crime on the phone tapping.

He said the High Court can initiate contempt proceedings against those who ordered officials to tap the judge’s phone for interfering in the justice system. By tapping the judge’s phone, they appear to be keen on threatening the judges by gathering their personal information through snooping.

Aloori Giridhar Rao, the senior advocate of the Telangana High Court, demanded a probe into the phone tapping issue. He claimed that his sources in the government had told him that his phone was also tapped by the previous BRS regime as he was appearing on behalf of NSUI and other unemployed youth against the discrepancies in the Group-1 preliminary examination.

Based on his arguments, the Telangana High Court had cancelled the Group-1 exams and ordered the re-examination, which attracted the previous BRS government’s attention.

Advocate Chikkudu Prabhakar said he was planning to make a representation to the High Court to look into the tapping of the judge’s phone.

Though the confession statement by the police officer had revealed only one judge’s name, he said there could be chances of phones of other judges getting tapped. In these circumstances, Prabhakar said the intervention of the High Court is necessary to protect the independence of the judiciary.