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Debjit Mukherjee: “The central government is using the central investigative agencies and they are extremely active at the instruction of Modi government to corner the opposition” this is what Trinamool Congress, Indian National Congress and the Left are complaining about on Sunday. This time the Supreme Court has put their verdict the complaint. The court clearly said, “A country cannot be run by agencies.”
A public interest litigation was being heard in the apex court bench of Justice Sanjay Kisan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia on Tuesday. The case of confiscation of digital materials (mobiles, laptops) of journalists was filed by an organization of journalists called ‘Foundation for Media Professionals’. Advocates for the organization were Rahul Narayan and Siddharth Aggarwal. Both of them appealed for safeguards to prevent investigative agencies from seizing journalists’ digital content ‘at will’.
There, Justice Kaul said, “This is a very important issue. There must be clear guidelines in this regard. Journalists have their own ‘sources’. Right to privacy is a fundamental right. If you want, we can frame the rules.” Reprimanding the Center during the hearing, the apex court said, “It is very dangerous when agencies become all-powerful. The country cannot be run by agencies.”
