No govt agency can peep into citizens lives without valid reason: Kerala HC

No person be it the media or governmental agencies has the right to peep into the private lives of citizens without a valid reason the Kerala High Court held recentlyThe court also observed that certain media personalities socalled crusade for truth and justice or personal vendetta cannot be excuses for impinging the right to privacy of the general publicIt said that it was disheartening to see that some news channels are in the habit of publishing sleaze more than newsA section of the public also devours such sensational and salacious news In the absence of any mechanism to curb the menace it is for those channels to introspect and decide whether by the action of a few faith in the fourth estate a powerful pillar of our democracy is getting eroded the court saidAlso read Kerala Two BJP workers attacked in Palakkad police register caseThe strong observations by Justice V G Arun came while dismissing a plea by two mediapersons seeking anticipatory bail in a case against them for various offences under the IPC Information Technology Act and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act PoA ActThe two journalists are accused of publishing on their online channel news items containing disparaging remarks against a woman who had lodged a complaint against her employer also a mediaperson alleging that he compelled her to videograph her nudity for creating a morphed video of a lady Minister of the StateThe disparaging news items were published after the arrest of her employer who also used to run an online news channelThe complainant alleged the news items were published with the knowledge that she belonged to a Scheduled Tribe communityThe accused moved the High Court after a Sessions Court rejected their plea for anticipatory bailBefore the High Court they denied the allegations against them in the complaint and claimed that their news items were an expression of protest against the false implication of the complainants employerThey also contended that their custodial interrogation was not necessary and offences under the PoA Act would not be attractedJustice Arun while rejecting their claims and contentions said In my opinion publication of another persons private moments for public viewing is by itself an offensive act even if there is no law preventing such actionNo person whether it be the media or governmental agencies has the right to peep into the private lives of the citizens of this country without there being a valid reasonThe court also said that in the instant case the allegations against the accused media persons was that they had knowledge the complainant belonged to ST community and therefore publication of news with content to insult or abuse her was sufficient to attract offences under PoA ActHence the contention that there is no material or circumstance to attract the offences under the PoA Act can only be rejected Consequently the bar under Section 18 of the Act against grant of prearrest bail will come into playHence the finding of the Special Court sessions court in that regard does not warrant interference For the aforementioned reasons the appeal is dismissed the court saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever