Army Major Seeks Wife's Hotel CCTV Footage, Court Upholds Right To Privacy

New Delhi:

Upholding the right to privacy in an alleged extramarital affair case involving two Army officers, a Delhi court has rejected a request seeking CCTV footage from a hotel. The petition was filed by a Major in the Indian Army, who alleged that his wife was having an affair with another officer, also a Major.

The court noted that the alleged couple had the right to privacy at the hotel, and it shielded their data and booking details from any third party, reported Livelaw. Civil Judge Vaibhav Pratap Singh observed that hotels must protect the confidentiality of their guests.

"The right to privacy and to be left alone in a hotel would extend to the common areas as against a third party who was not present there and has no other legally justifiable entitlement to seek the data of the guest. Same would hold good for the booking details," said the Judge.

Read: "In Era Of Deepfakes...": Court Rejects Husband's Claim Of Adultery Based On Photos

The petition also raised concern over the wife and her alleged lover's right to be heard, he said, noting that they were not named in the lawsuit despite being central to the case.

The Judge said it was questionable if the hotel could be compelled to release the footage without making the alleged couple parties to the lawsuit.

"The release of such private information without affording them an opportunity to defend their privacy rights would be a violation of their right to natural justice and even the fundamental right to privacy and could lead to reputational harm," the court observed.

It also asserted that courts are not investigative bodies for private disputes or a channel for collecting evidence in internal proceedings.

The Judge said the complainant must avail remedies under the Army Act, 1950 and the extant rules, noting that the court cannot be used to bypass or supplement the internal mechanisms. 

Read: "Law Can't Be Powerless To Stop Clandestine Unions": Court On Adultery

He also cited Graham Greene's novel 'The End of the Affair' in his order, which said the "burden of fidelity" rests with the one who made the promise. "It is not the lover who has betrayed the marriage, but the one who made the vow and broke it. The outsider was never bound by it," the order read.

The Judge also pointed to a landmark verdict on adultery by the Supreme Court. Citing the 2018 Joseph Shinde vs Union of India case, he said the top court had rejected the concept that a man could 'steal' the affection of another man's wife, giving the impression that she could not choose who to love.

Rejecting what he said was a "dated idea" that a man could steal a woman, where she is not assigned any responsibility, he said that it "dehumanises" women.

He recalled that even the Parliament had done away with the adultery law while enacting the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). This showed that modern-day Bharat has no place for gender condescension and patriarchal notions, said Judge Singh.