Bombay HC awards compensation for illegal police search, phone seizure

The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 10,000 compensation to a Nagpur woman, holding that police illegally entered her bedroom and seized her mobile phone, violating her privacy, dignity and Article 21 constitutional rights

Mumbai: The police’s forced entry into a woman’s bedroom and seizure of her mobile phone without following legal procedures was an invasion of her privacy and dignity, the Bombay High Court observed, ordering the Maharashtra government to pay compensation to a Nagpur resident.

The Nagpur bench, comprising Justices Urmila Joshi Phalke and Nivedita Mehta, stated that the right to privacy is an integral and inseparable facet of the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which cannot be infringed.

A copy of the order passed last week was made available on Monday. The bench directed the state to pay Rs 10,000 to the 26-year-old petitioner woman within two months, clarifying that the government could recover the penalty amount directly from the errant police officer responsible.

“Entry into the residential premises of a citizen, more particularly into the bedroom occupied by a woman, without adherence to the statutory safeguards and forcible seizure of her mobile phone constitutes a serious invasion of privacy and dignity,” the court said.

Dismissing the police’s contention that the search was undertaken as part of a probe into an offence, the court said this cannot justify a departure from the mandatory safeguards enacted by the legislature.

The investigating agency is expected to act strictly within the bounds of law, and the object of investigation cannot legitimise an otherwise illegal search or seizure, it said.

The bench concluded that the search conducted by the concerned police official and the seizure of the petitioner’s mobile phone were illegal and violated her fundamental rights. Hence, she was entitled to compensation.

It further held that although monetary compensation cannot fully redress the invasion of privacy and dignity suffered by the woman, it would provide some measure of solace for the violation of her constitutional rights and serve as a reminder that investigative powers must be exercised strictly in accordance with law and not arbitrarily.

The petitioner, a resident of Saoner in Nagpur, claimed that the police illegally entered her residence, her bedroom, under the garb of investigating a case and seized her mobile phone without following the statutory procedure laid down by law.

The police had claimed that they had visited the petitioner’s house to question her in connection with a car accident. The woman, in her plea, alleged that the police had harassed her and her husband by visiting their residence repeatedly for questioning without issuance of notice and illegally seized and retained her mobile phone for two days without following the procedure prescribed under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

The woman claimed that neither she nor her husband has been named as an accused in the case. The court, in its order, noted that in the present case, there has been a clear non-compliance with the statutory requirements of law.