Delhi HC seeks I-T dept stand on Newslaundry's plea concerning leakage of seized material
New Delhi, Sep 17: The Delhi High Court Friday sought Income Tax Department's stand on a plea by online news portal Newslaundry and its co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri to restrain any leakage of the material seized during a survey operation held earlier this month.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla granted time to the department's counsel to seek instructions on giving an undertaking against any leak and asked that the concerned officer join the proceedings on the next date of hearing i.e. September 21.
Ask your client (to join proceedings) so that we can close it then and there. Let him be by your side..If he gives a statement, we can put a quietus to the matter, said the bench to the lawyer who asserted that the fear of leak was a bald apprehension .
Data of thousands of assessees is in safe custody of the department and it can be used only in accordance with law, said counsel for the department Ajit Shamra.
During the course of the hearing, the bench orally observed, Normally, no one's data should be leaked as it is ethically, morally and legally wrong.
We have seen it on channels, people's data that has been seized is being displayed... It should not happen, it remarked.
Senior counsel Siddharth Dave, appearing for the petitioners, said that four notices under the Income Tax Act were issued to his client and a survey was held in the news portal's premises on September 10, during which several devices, including a mobile phone and a laptop belonging to the petitioner co-founder, were seized by the IT authorities, which contained several information which were of no relevance to any income tax proceedings.
The data may contain personal photos and information pertaining to investigative stories, he said.
The senior lawyer argued that any data breach would be in violation of right to privacy and therefore a direction should be passed to the IT authorities to not leak any data and delete whatever is of no relevance to the proceedings.
It was also contended that any seizure during a survey operation was beyond the scope of survey and that no hash value of the seized data was given.
Please direct them not to leak seized data collected in this purported garb of a survey and allow me to delete (non I-T related) data, the senior lawyer submitted.
In the petition filed through advocate Nipun Katyal, the petitioners have said that the income tax officers and authorities do not have any power to interrupt the ordinary peaceful citizens of the country in any manner they like by utilizing the large powers given to them, without keeping strictly within the four corners of those large powers.
The Petitioners are heading a news organization, the Petitioners herein have sources, contacts and other information on the digital machines. It is the fiduciary duty of the Petitioners to protect them and keep it confidential.
"It is further submitted that the legal communication regarding existing cases is present in the personal laptop and phone of the Petitioners. If in any circumstances, the leaks are committed, it shall be a clear breach of the attorney client privilege as well as whistleblowers confidentiality, the plea says.
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Rupee crashes 46 paise to 92.28 against US dollar in early trade, nears all-time low
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee plummeted 46 paise to near its all-time intra-day low of 92.28 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday as global crude oil prices shot up and the greenback strengthened amid the worsening situation in the Middle East.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by a staggering 25.68 per cent at USD 116.5 per barrel in futures trade as the war between US-Israel and Iran intensified.
A big surge in FII outflows and a crash at the domestic equity market in morning trade put further pressure in the local unit, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 92.22 against the US dollar before declining further to 92.28, down 46 paise from its previous close. The rupee had hit an all-time intra-day low of 92.35 on March 4.
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The rupee depreciated 18 paise against the US dollar on Friday to close at 91.82 against the American currency.
"The rupee will remain vulnerable to the rising oil prices which have risen by more than 28 per cent since the last closure on Friday. Asian currencies were also lower on Monday," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
Rupee might touch 93.00 if oil remains above USD 100 in the coming trading sessions, he added.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.66 per cent higher at 99.64.
On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex crashed 2,345.89 points to 76,573.01 in early trade, while Nifty tumbled 708.75 points to 23,741.70.
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 6,030.38 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, India's forex reserves jumped USD 4.885 billion to an all-time high of USD 728.494 billion during the week ended February 27, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.
