Monti Fest celebrated with devotion across Udupi district
Udupi: The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Monti Fest, was celebrated with devotion in Udupi district on Saturday.
Christians gathered in their respective churches and children offered flowers to Mother Mary. The church parish priests blessed the new paddy and took it in a procession inside the church.
Most Rev. Dr. Gerald Isaac Lobo, Bishop of Udupi Catholic Diocese, participated in the feast ceremony at St. Joyner Church of Shankarpur here and blessed the new paddy and concelebrated the holy Eucharistic mass.
Fr. Valerian Mendonca, parish priest of the church, blessed the new paddy at Mother of Sorrows Church in Udupi.
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Madras HC rules spousal privacy as a fundamental right, disallows evidence obtained through snooping
Chennai: In a landmark judgment, the Madras High Court emphasized the protection of spousal privacy as a fundamental right, ruling that evidence obtained by one spouse snooping on the other is inadmissible in court. This ruling came as Justice G.R. Swaminathan overturned a lower court's decision that had allowed a husband to submit his wife's call records in a marital dispute case.
The court made it clear that privacy, as a constitutionally guaranteed right, includes the privacy of married individuals from each other, rejecting the notion that marital misconduct permits invasion of personal privacy. "Law cannot proceed on the premise that marital misconduct is the norm. Privacy as a fundamental right includes spousal privacy, and evidence obtained by invading this right is inadmissible," stated the court.
The case originated in Paramakudi Subordinate Court, where the husband submitted the wife's call data as evidence to support claims of adultery, cruelty, and desertion. He had obtained these records without her consent, an act the High Court deemed a violation of privacy. Additionally, the call records were not accompanied by a certificate under Section 65B(4) of the Indian Evidence Act, making them procedurally inadmissible.
Justice Swaminathan noted that allowing such evidence would open doors to spouses spying on each other, damaging the foundational trust in marital relationships. “Trust forms the bedrock of matrimonial relationships. The spouses must have implicit and total faith in each other. Snooping destroys the fabric of marital life,” he stated.
The High Court further advised that allegations of misconduct could be pursued through authorized methods, such as interrogatories or affidavits, cautioning that the court must not assume marital misconduct as a norm justifying privacy breaches.
