Delhi HC seeks Centre's response on plea to frame guidelines for private detectives

New Delhi [India], September 22 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre and others on a plea seeking to frame guidelines to regulate the work of private detectives till a codified act comes into existence.

A bench of Justice Rekha Palli asked the Centre and others to file a reply on the plea filed by a woman.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a woman through her advocates Rajesh Kumar and Smarhar Singh.

The petitioner said that in absence of any codified law, circular or guidelines regulating the domain of private individual and agency of Private detective in India as "Bill No-XL of 2007 Private Detective Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2007 still not became the law even after 13 years, individuals with oblique motive, vengeance and sheer sinister intent either snoop personally or hire these so called private detective/ private investigator agency. Under the garb of unregulated vocation of private detective / private investigator, they intrude in the personal life of any individual without following any norm (as none exist), deceitfully procure intimate personal details (visuals /pictorials /data etc) and circulate it in public domain for a price, the petitioner added. The victim is at receiving end with no forum to express his/her grievances, the petitioner added further.

The woman, in her petition, told the Delhi High Court that she was a victim of an illegal snooping incident done by some private detectives. She also apprised the Court that a foreign national used these details in a US court, which wants testification of the documents with the testimony of petitioner and alleged a private detective to proceed on the claims of one woman against her ex-husband.

"This rampantly flourished private detectives' agency day in and day out doing this illegal snooping into the private/ intimate domain of the citizen of India. The lady writ petitioner is one of the gruesome victims of such audaciously unlawful Shweta Sharma alleged private detective/ private investigator," the petitioner said. (ANI)