Vijayawada/New Delhi: The Delhi High Court sought the response of the Centre on a plea by YSR Congress former MP Y.V. Subba Reddy and his associates, who claimed that their phones were being tapped by the AP government and had been placed under “illegal technical surveillance”.
Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued notice to the Centre through the Union home and Telecommunication ministries, chief secretary and principal secretary, home, of AP.
Apart from Mr Subba Reddy, the petition was filed by five others, including party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s personal and political assistants.
The court listed the matter for hearing on April 15.
Central government standing counsel Ajay Digpaul said the petitioners had given a representation to the Centre which has been forwarded to the AP government as the grievance was against the state government.
In the plea, Mr Reddy sought the court’s direction to the authorities, including the telecom and home ministries and the AP chief secretary and mobile service providers to explain under what circumstances they had been put under technical surveillance.
The petition sought “necessary action under relevant provisions of law against the authorities responsible for intercepting their telephones”.
The petition has also sought direction to the authorities to forthwith suspend the surveillance. It said that secretly listening to or recording a communication in order to get information about other activities is morally wrong and it constitutes a serious invasion of an individual’s privacy.
The plea said that a representation was made to the home ministry in December last year with a request to direct the organisations to forthwith remove the petitioners’ numbers from the unauthorised surveillance and also seeking an impartial and independent probe into the incident.
The authorities have neither replied nor have they taken any action against those involved in the activities, it has claimed.
