New Delhi: In 2010, eight year before the Supreme Court of India handed down the landmark verdict in the Puttaswamy case recognising right to privacy as a fundamental right, former Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, had raised the issue of right to privacy by the way of a petition in the Supreme Court.
Ratan Tata filed a petition in Supreme Court in November 2010
Ratan Tata had in November 2010 filed a petition in the Supreme Court raising fundamental questions around the right to privacy of citizens and the corresponding duty of the government to maintain confidentiality with respect to material gathered by wiretaps during investigation and the right of media to publish material so gathered by the investigation agencies.
Tata raised the issue of right to privacy vis-a-vis the government; right to privacy of citizens vis-a-vis the press; and right to know the information.
Why did Ratan Tata file a petition before the apex court?
The principle reason Ratan Tata had filed this petition in the Supreme Court was the leak of Nira Radia tapes and its subsequent publication of conversations between Radia and Ratan Tata in magazines.
Nira Radia, a corporate lobbyist, was under surveillance of the Income Tax department in connection with a 2G scam and the IT department had tapped the phone of Nira Radia. A year after the taps were made, the phone conversations of Radia with various corporate leaders, politicians and journalists found its way in public domain.
But Ratan Tata had clarified to the Supreme court that his petition was not an attempt to obstruct publication of conversations between him and Nira Radia, but it seeks solution to violation of constitutional rights of large number of people, including him, by the indiscriminate publication of intercepted phone conversations obtained by media houses and which had no nexus with the probe being conducted by the income Tax department.
What was Tata’s argument?
Tata’s argument was that a dangerous precedent was being set by allowing publication of materials obtained by wiretaps and its impact on the right to privacy, as there is a reasonable assumption that conversation between individuals over phones was private and protected conversation and publication such conversation of the accused with other people affect the right to privacy of other people.
Ratan Tata’s first visit to the Supreme Court was on August 22, 2013
On 22 August 2013, the former Chairman of Tata Group of companies came to the Supreme Court of India accompanied by his lawyer, senior advocate Harish Salve, to appear in court room number 2 presided over by former justice GS Singhivi. This was Ratan Tata’s first visit to the Supreme Court. He sat through he hearing on his petition, hoping that the court would pass some orders on his petition.
However, over more than a decade after the petition was filed, the Supreme Court is yet to adjudicate on the issue.
