BHOPAL: The Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued notices to senior administrative and police officials of the state on Friday, while hearing a petition filed by Vyapam scam whistleblower Ashish Chaturvedi alleging invasion of his Right to Privacy by the police.
The petition filed by Chaturvedi is perhaps the first alleging invasion of Right to Privacy after the Supreme Court’s August 24 ruling that Right to Privacy was a fundamental right because it’s intrinsic to the right to life.
A single-judge bench of Justice Anand Pathak issued notices to the state principal secretary (home), state director general of police, inspector general of police (Gwalior) and superintendent of police (Gwalior). The officials have been directed to file their replies within a month before the court.
The High Court also directed IPS officer Anil Kumar (presently the IG of Gwalior) to appear in person before the court, as the petitioner’s counsel D P Singh had submitted documents before the court which suggested that Chaturvedi was placed under camera surveillance at the behest of the IG.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ashish Chaturvedi, an RTI activist-cum-Vyapam scam whistle-blower had petitioned the High Court’s Gwalior bench three days back, submitting that his right to privacy was being invaded as the constable deployed for his security was video-graphing all of Chaturvedi’s activities on specific instructions by his higher-ups.
Such a step (videography) is totally arbitrary, which is disturbing the privacy of the petitioner as enshrined under Article 19(1) and 20 of the Constitution of India, Chaturvedi contended in his petition. The petitioner also submitted about being aggrieved with such harassing, arbitrary, unlawful and unfair act on part of the respondents (police).
Chaturvedi submitted that he had made a specific complaint to the higher authorities on the matter, but none of them have acted on it. On the other hand, the respondents (police) are disturbing his life by interfering in the privacy of the petitioner, which will also damage his status in the society, Chaturvedi’s petition said.
“The camera followed me till my bathroom door. My mother and sister were living under tremendous mental stress with cameras videographing them as well. Breaching my privacy in the name of security, policemen barge into my house. They follow me everywhere with cameras. They follow me while I visit a shop to get photocopies done, or when I talk to anyone. This has led to my social boycott,” Chaturvedi contended.