Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Tuesday moved the High Court challenging the orders passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Vijayawada, directing four telecom companies to produce call data and original letters of interception of certain phone conversations from competent authority of Telangana state.
On July 7, the Vijayawada court had directed BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications of Hyderabad to produce the call data, on petitions moved by the Special Investigation Team constituted to probe alleged tapping of phones of Andhra Pradesh government officials by the Telangana government.
On July 17, the court passed orders directing the firms not to destroy the data in respect of telephone numbers specified in the notices and original letters of interception of emergency and regular monitoring by the agencies, namely IGP (Intelligence), IGP (Counter Intelligence cell), IGP (SIB) of Telangana.
Mr Ajay Mishra, principal secretary to the Telangana home department, moved the petition in the High Court contending that the orders of the Vijayawada court were arbitrary and illegal, without jurisdiction and in breach of the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act and Section 123, 124 and 131 of the Indian Evidence Act.
He urged the court to stay the orders of the lower court as it has no jurisdiction to pass orders for production of material pertaining to Telangana state, in spite of the fact that the Telangana state is not a party to the proceedings.
