<p>"The central government must frame certain statutory guidelines in this regard to prevent interception of telephone conversations on unauthorised communication," a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.<br /><br />The bench also said the telecom companies should also take due care and pulled up Reliance Infocom for tapping the telephones of controversial leader Amar Singh on the basis of a forged letter.<br /><br />"This court is of the opinion that the service provider has to act as a responsible agency and cannot act on any communication," the court said.<br /><br />"In view of the public nature of the function of a service provider, it is inherent in its duty to act carefully and with a sense of responsibility. This court is thus constrained to observe that in discharging the said duty, Reliance Infocom has failed," the court said.<br /><br />"Sanctity and regularity in official communication in such matters must be maintained, especially when the service provider is taking the serious step of intercepting the telephone conversations of a person and by doing so is invading the privacy right of the person concerned, which is a fundamental right protected under the Constitution, as has been held by this court," the bench said.</p>
<p>"The central government must frame certain statutory guidelines in this regard to prevent interception of telephone conversations on unauthorised communication," a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.<br /><br />The bench also said the telecom companies should also take due care and pulled up Reliance Infocom for tapping the telephones of controversial leader Amar Singh on the basis of a forged letter.<br /><br />"This court is of the opinion that the service provider has to act as a responsible agency and cannot act on any communication," the court said.<br /><br />"In view of the public nature of the function of a service provider, it is inherent in its duty to act carefully and with a sense of responsibility. This court is thus constrained to observe that in discharging the said duty, Reliance Infocom has failed," the court said.<br /><br />"Sanctity and regularity in official communication in such matters must be maintained, especially when the service provider is taking the serious step of intercepting the telephone conversations of a person and by doing so is invading the privacy right of the person concerned, which is a fundamental right protected under the Constitution, as has been held by this court," the bench said.</p>