Adultery accused? Privacy card declined

India’s Supreme Court has ruled that a spouse accused of adultery cannot use the constitutional right to privacy to withhold call records and hotel-stay details if those records are needed as evidence in a divorce case.

The court said the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is not absolute and may be subject to reasonable restrictions when required in the interest of justice.

The ruling came in a matrimonial dispute where a husband challenged orders allowing his wife to produce his mobile call records and hotel-stay information before the court. He argued that disclosing such records would violate his fundamental right to privacy.

However, the Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court’s decision and rejected the husband’s plea.
The court observed that adultery is a valid ground for divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Therefore, a person facing such allegations cannot use privacy as a shield to prevent the other spouse from collecting evidence necessary to prove the claim.

According to the case details, the couple married in 1998 and had a daughter in 2000. The wife later alleged that her husband had an extramarital relationship with another woman and had stayed with her at a hotel in Jaipur.

Based on the allegation, she filed for divorce and sought court permission to obtain her husband’s call records and hotel-stay details.

A family court first allowed the application, and the Delhi High Court later upheld that order. The Supreme Court has now affirmed the same position.

The ruling is expected to have wider significance in matrimonial cases, especially where digital records and hotel documents are sought to establish allegations of adultery.