Delhi High Court Orders Preservation Of Hotel Booking Details, Phone Records Of Husband In Wife’s Plea Alleging Adultery

The Delhi High Court has directed preservation of guest register, booking invoices, CCTV footage of a hotel based in Goa and phone records of a husband, whose wife has sought divorce on the ground that he was living in adultery with another woman. 

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma clarified that the records will not be handed over to any of the parties but will be preserved by the concerned third persons and produced before the trial court only in case they are directed to do so at the appropriate stage of trial.

The couple was married in 2012. The wife alleged that the husband abandoned the marriage in 2017 after which she filed a petition seeking divorce on the grounds of cruelty and depression.

It was the wife’s case that in July 2021, she discovered an old phone and chats exchanged between the husband and another lady when the couple was newly married. Thereafter, she filed another petition for divorce on ground of adultery in December, 2021 which is pending before the family court.

The wife said that she came to know that the husband had stayed with another woman in a hotel based in Goa from August 15, 2020 to August 20, 2020. An application was then moved by her before concerned Magistrate seeking call detail records of husband’s mobile phone number with tower proximity between October 27, 2019 to October 27, 2022.

The application was dismissed by the Magistrate on the ground that notice of the same had to be served to the husband. The order was later upheld by the Additional Sessions Judge. The wife then moved the High Court challenging both orders. She also moved an urgent application seeking ex-parte production and preservation of the hotel documents and records.

Granting relief to the wife, the court noted that her plea was only to direct the third parties to preserve the "crucial evidence", so that it is not destroyed by the time the trial reaches the appropriate stage of production of evidence.

The court thus directed preservation of hotel documents including the guest register, invoices, payment details,emails exchanged, CCTV footage and phone records along with CDR in respect of the husband.

“This Court makes it clear that this order is being passed only for the purpose of preservation of the record so that the same is not tampered or destroyed with passage of time when the appropriate stage of trial reaches and in case the learned Trial Court comes to a conclusion that the same can be produced in the Court by either of the parties, this order will not be construed to have conferred any right to them to do so,” the court said.

Furthermore, the court said that it was not giving any finding on the genuineness or anything related to the record being used as evidence or its evidentiary value before the concerned court.

“The concerned Court will issue notice of the application moved by the concerned parties for production of these documents and record in the Trial Court for any purpose and after hearing the other side. The Court will decide the application for production of such documents on its merits as per law,” Justice Sharma ordered.

Yesterday, a coordinate bench of the High Court observed that a wife can seek production of evidence or documents to prove the charge of adultery levelled by her against the husband in a divorce petition before family court and same will be in consonance with section 14 of Family Courts Act.

Justice Rekha Palli ruled that since Hindu Marriage Act specifically recognises adultery as a ground for divorce, it would not at all be in public interest that the court should on the ground of right to privacy, come to the aid of a married man who, during the subsistence of his marriage, is alleged to have indulged in sexual relationships outside his marriage.

Also Read: Can Husband’s Right To Privacy Prevail Over Wife’s Right To Seek Evidence For Proving Her Allegations Of Adultery? Delhi High Court Answers

Title: X & Y v. Z

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 391

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