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NEW DELHI: SC Thursday refused to restrain ED from accessing information from the mobile phone of I-PAC functionary Jitendra Mehta, which was seized during a search on Jan 8 at the political consultancy firm’s Delhi office. Mehta has been summoned for questioning at the ED headquarters on Friday.Appearing before a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant, senior advocate C A Sundaram said allowing Enforcement Directorate to open the phone would violate Mehta’s privacy and pleaded that ED be restrained from doing so till the next date of hearing on Tuesday. But the bench asked him “why are you so afraid”.Sundaram said the apex court should intervene to protect his fundamental right, but the bench said, “We know how to protect an innocent citizen”. The advocate then remarked that the court was presuming his guilt.While ED seized digital devices from I-PAC’s Delhi office during its Jan 8 search operation, it could not do the same in Kolkata as the West Bengal Police brass interrupted the search proceedings on the firm’s premises in the presence of TMC chief and CM Mamata Banerjee. Documents and digital devices seized by ED officers in Kolkata were taken away from them.The CJI-led bench also clubbed all matters related to the restraint put on ED to access phones and digital devices of other money laundering case accused and scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. Sources said the other cases in which ED has been restrained by SC from accessing digital data of an accused includes matters related to lottery king Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming, NewsClick, Foundation for Media Professionals, Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd, and the Tamil Nadu govt.”In the above cases it was argued that current laws were inadequate and that allowing the agency to access personal devices infringe upon the fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 and the right against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) of the Constitution,” a source said.The accused facing ED probe had sought SC to frame guidelines for search and seizure of devices by enforcement agencies since devices also contained personal data.In Nov 2023, SC directed govt to draft guidelines. The govt had sought time, and later, MHA formed a panel headed by director I4C for formulating guidelines to curb the indiscriminate seizure of digital devices. The govt had also argued that till then the CBI manual be allowed to be followed by all central agencies.
