The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that a husband cannot force his wife to share private information such as call records, messages, personal belongings, mobile passwords, or bank details. The Court held that such compulsion would amount to a violation of privacy and could also invite provisions under the Domestic Violence Act.
The decision came from Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey while hearing a petition filed by a husband who sought his wife’s call detail records (CDR) during divorce proceedings.
The husband had filed for divorce under Section 13(1)(i-a) of the Hindu Marriage Act, claiming cruelty. During the proceedings, he approached the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Durg, and later the Family Court, asking for his wife’s call records to prove his suspicions about her character. Both requests were rejected, and he challenged the rejection before the High Court.
The High Court noted that the case was filed on the ground of cruelty and not adultery. Therefore, there was no justification to demand private call records.
Citing landmark judgments including Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2017), PUCL v. Union of India (1996), and Mr. X v. Hospital Z (1998), the Court highlighted that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. It covers personal intimacies, the sanctity of marriage, and individual autonomy.
Justice Pandey emphasized that even within marriage, both spouses enjoy the right to privacy. Sharing a marital relationship does not mean one partner can arbitrarily interfere with the other’s personal space or communications.
Accordingly, the Court upheld the rejection of the husband’s plea, making it clear that marriage does not give automatic access to a spouse’s private information.
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