NEW DELHI: The Centre assured the Supreme Court on Wednesday that guidelines would be framed regarding seizure of electronic devices of journalists and academics by probe agencies to prevent misuse and protect the right to privacy and sought a week’s time from the court.
As a bench of Justices Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia heard a batch of petitions seeking framing of such guidelines, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju submitted that the government may come up with guidelines and said one more week was needed.
“Try to get it done. ‘Ummed pe duniya kayam hai’ (the world exists on hope),” the bench said while accepting the Centre’s request.
As the bench deferred the hearing for next week, Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishna pleaded the court that the case be not deleted from the list on December 14 when the matter has been posted, a reference to the controversy arising out of deletion of judges’ appointment case from the list on Tuesday.
“I cannot guarantee that it is not going to be deleted,” Justice Kaul said in a lighter vein and added, “For a change, they (Centre) sought only a week.” Justice Kaul is retiring next week.
On the last hearing, the court had said that probe agencies cannot be given overarching powers and some guidelines needed to be put in place to protect the rights of journalists and others whose electronic devices are seized by the agencies.
“It is a serious matter. These are media professionals who will have their own sources and other things. There must be some guidelines. If you take everything away, then there is a problem. You must ensure that there are some guidelines,” the bench had said.