Telephonic Conversation Of A Spouse Recorded Without Consent Is Admissible As Evidence In Matrimonial Proceedings: SC

After summer vacation, today (July 14, 2025), the Supreme Court (SC) of India heard a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC), which stated that recording the wife’s telephonic conversation without her consent/knowledge amounts to a ‘clear breach of the fundamental right of the petitioner-wife i.e., her right to privacy’ and cannot be used as evidence before a Family Court. The matter was mentioned before a two-judge bench of the SC consisting of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra. The bench set aside the Punjab and Haryana HC judgment and held that secretly recorded telephonic conversations of a spouse are admissible in matrimonial proceedings as evidence. The Court said, “We do not think there is any breach of privacy in this case. In fact, Section 122 of the Evidence Act does not recognise any such right. On the other hand, it carves out an exception to the right to privacy between spouses and therefore cannot be applied horizontally at all. It does not touch upon the aspect of right to privacy as envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution, let alone invade upon such right. It does recognise right to a fair trial, right to produce relevant evidence, and right to prove one's case against the spouse so as to avail relief sought.”

Furthermore, the SC bench rejected the argument that ‘permitting such evidence would jeopardise domestic harmony in matrimonial relationships as it would encourage snooping on the spouses, therefore, defeating the objective of section 122 of the Evidence Act’. It said, “If the marriage has reached a stage where spouses are actively snooping on each other, that is in itself a symptom of a broken relationship and denotes a lack of trust between them.” Section 122 of the Evidence Act states that “No person who is or has been married, shall be compelled to disclose any communication made to him during marriage by any person to whom he is or has been married; nor shall he be permitted to disclose any such communication, unless the person who made it, or his representative-in-interest, consents, except in suits between married persons, or proceedings in which one married person is prosecuted for any crime committed against the other.”