[Newslaundry IT Raid] Seized material safe, won't be leaked: IT Dept tells Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday disposed of a plea by Newslaundry to protect the personal data seized by the Income Tax (IT) Department during recent raids at the media outlet's office, after taking on record the IT Department's undertaking that the seized material would not be leaked. .A Bench of Justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla, however, added that Newslaundry may approach the Court again if the need arises in the future and that such petition would be considered on its own merits.."Today Mr Ajit Sharma on instructions of Mr Digvijay Singh, DGIT, (Investigations), says that the seized material is in safe custody of Income Tax Department and it shall be used for the purposes of investigation and in accordance with law … (the respondent) undertakes that the seized material shall not be leaked and the concept of confidentiality as enshrined in Section 138 of the Income Tax Act shall be abided", the Court recorded in its order. . The Department would be bound by such undertaking, the Court said. .During a raid conducted under Section 133A of Income Tax Act on September 10, the IT Department had seized the phone and laptop of CEO Abhinandan Sekhri as well as a few office machines. All the data in these devices was downloaded and taken by the authorities, the Court was told. .This prompted Newslaundry, through Sekhri, to appear before the High Court seeking preservation of the private data present on the devices..Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave had submitted that Sekhri's personal phone and his Mac Book was taken control of. The data downloaded by the IT Department was 300GB, which also included Sekhri's personal data. This amounted to a breach of his right to privacy, Dave contended..Dave also argued that Sekhri is apprehensive that his data will be leaked to the media, and thus prayed for a direction to the IT authorities to not leak the data. He further submitted that the Section 133A of Income Tax Act, does not give them power to seize personal data of an individual. Therefore, they have acted beyond the scope of the provision..Appearing on behalf of the Director-General of Income Tax (DGIT), Advocate Ajit Sharma had submitted that the data will be used in accordance with law and there is no reason for them to apprehend any leakage of personal data..He further said that it is a bald apprehension made by the petitioner that just because they are journalists, their data will be leaked.."But we have seen it in news, several times data has been leaked", the Court had orally observed earlier while issuing notice in the matter. .Newslaundry IT Raid: Delhi High Court issues notice to IT Department in plea for protection of personal data