NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said the Income Tax department is bound by its assurance to maintain confidentiality of the material seized during a survey operation at news portal Newslaundry’s premises on September 10.
The court was hearing a petition by the news portal and its co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri.
Counsel for the I-T department assured a bench of Justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla that the material seized by the authorities will be used only in accordance with the law, which may include sharing it with other government agencies.
‘Seized material is in safe custody of the Income Tax department. It will be illegal to leak such material,’ said lawyer Ajit Sharma for the department.
Senior counsel for the petitioners, while seeking a direction to the I-T authorities not to leak any data and delete whatever is of no relevance to the proceedings, had said that four notices under the I-T Act were issued to his client.
The senior counsel added that during the survey several devices were seized, which might contain personal photos and information pertaining to investigative news stories.