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Hyderabad High Court stays proceedings in phone-tapping case

Hyderabad - The development is being seen as a major setback for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government in Andhra Pradesh.

In a shot in the arm for the Telangana government in the cash-for-vote scam, the Hyderabad High Court has stayed all further proceedings pertaining to the case of alleged phone-tapping of elected representatives of Andhra Pradesh.
Admitting two petitions moved by the Telangana state government challenging two orders of a lower court in Vijayawada directing four telecom service providers to furnish the call data, Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar granted interim stay till further orders by the lower court.
The development is being seen as a major setback for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government in Andhra Pradesh which has been countering the cash-for-vote scam with allegations of phone-tapping by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Additional Solicitor General of India Natarajan, who came out in support of the Telangana government, submitted that the Union of India Acts, under Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act and the relevant provisions, empowered the government to take possession of licensed telegraphs and to order interception of messages.
Stating that Telangana had sought the opinion of the Centre before intercepting certain telephone conversations, he said the entire correspondence regarding the interception were privileged documents and could not be disclosed or forced to be disclosed even before a court of law, even as Andhra Advocate General P Venugopal contended that the telecom companies had been directed by the Supreme Court to place the material before the Vijayawada court in a sealed envelope.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Vijayawada, had on July 17, in another order, directed the telecom service providers not to destroy the required material and data in respect to 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) pertaining to Telangana state etc.
The lower court had passed the orders based on applications moved by the Special Investigation Team which was constituted by the AP government to probe a case registered on the complaint of AP irrigation minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao alleging that TRS leaders were intercepting the telephone calls of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Cabinet colleagues in Hyderabad.
Following the order of the lower court, the Telangana government had moved the High Court contending that the Telangana state government was not party before the court at Vijayawada and passing an order without being heard was illegal.
Telangana Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that when a court passed an order without being given an opportunity to be heard, the affected party had the right to move the HC, which had power to entertain such petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution. The interception of certain phone conversations was done in accordance with law and the lower court had no right to call for the records when the interception was done as per law in the interest of security and safety of the government and the public, he contended.
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While adjourning the case for four weeks, the judge directed the lower court not to proceed further in the case.
In a related development, The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has begun collecting voice samples in the cash-for-vote scam which has rocked the two states in the past couple of months. The investigating agency has issued notices to two local television channels to provide footage of the accused giving sound bites or interviews and simultaneously requisitioning the Telangana Assembly Speaker for speech copies of the main accused, TDP deputy floor leader A Revanth Reddy and lawmaker S Ventaka Veeraiah.
Revanth Reddy along with two other aides, it may be recalled, were arrested by the ACB sleuths on May 31 when he was caught red-handed while handing over Rs5 million in cash to nominated legislator Elvis Stephenson as part of a Rs50 million deal to vote in favor of the TDP candidate in the Telangana Legislative Council elections.
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