Delhi High Court
Ameet Parmeswaran & Ors vs Commissioner Of Police, Delhi & ... on 14 January, 2020
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
JUDGMENT DECIDED ON: 14.01.2020
+ W.P.(CRL) 80/2020
AMEET PARMESWARAN & ORS
..... Petitioners
Through Ms. Rebecca John, Mr. Akhil
Sibal and Mr. Gopal Sankar
Naryan Senior Advocates with
Mr. Abhik Chimni, Mr. Manav
Kumar, Ms. Aparajita Sinha,
Ms. Tara Narula, Mr. Adit
Pujari, Mr. Mayank Goyal,
Ms. Roshni Namboodiry,
Ms. Pravita Kashyap,
Ms. Deboshree Mukherjee, and
Ms. Nupur Agarwal, Advocates
Versus
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, DELHI & ORS
..... Respondents
Through Mr. Rahul Mehra, Standing
Counsel with Mr. Amanpreet
SinghAdvocates for the State
alongwith ACP Girish Kaushik
Insp. Prem Chandra and SI
Data Ram, P.S.: IGIS/Crime
Branch.
Mr. Parag P. Tripathi, Senior
Advocate with Mr. Tejas Karia,
Mr. Vivek Reddy, Mr. Pavit
Singh Katoch, Mr. Shashank
Mishra, Mr. Ravjyot Ghuman,
Ms. Ananya Das, Mr. Vinayak
Chawla, Advocates for
respondent no.3.
W.P.(CRL) 80/2020 Page 1 of 5
Mr. Sajjan Poovayya, Senior
Advocate with Ms. Raksha
Aggarwal, Mr. Priyadarshi
Banerjee, Mr. Vihan Dang, Mr.
Neel Mason, Advocates for
respondent no.4.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BRIJESH SETHI
JUDGMENT
BRIJESH SETHI, J (ORAL)
Status report has been filed on behalf of respondent no.1.
Notice was issued to respondent nos. 3 to 5. Learned Senior
Counsels for respondent 3 and 4 are present. No one is present on
behalf of respondent no.5.
Learned Senior Counsel for respondent no.3 submits that
WhatsApp Messages are end to end encrypted and are not stored on
their server once delivered. However, the chats would be available on
the recipients and sender's phones.
Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners has, however, drawn
the attention of this Court to the order passed by Madras High Court
in W.P. Nos. 20774 and 20214 of 2018 dated 25.04.2019, wherein
Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of WhatsApp has made
the following submissions;
4. Learned Senior Counsel further submitted that whenever
requests are made under Section 91 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973, as per the format, the following
information would be furnished, such as "Basic Subscriber
Information (BSI) includes phone number, name device info,
App version, Start date/time, connection status, last
connection date/time/IP, E-mail address, Web client data",
to the Law Enforcement Agencies.
Learned Senior Counsel for the respondent no.3 after going
through the above para submits that certain amendment is required in
the said submission to the effect that instead of IP Address it should
be last known IP Address.
Heard. In view of above facts and submissions appearing on
record, the respondent no.3 is directed to preserve and furnish the
following information to the investigating agency;
"Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) (includes phone
number), name device info, App version, Start date/time,
connection status, last connection date/time/Last known IP,
E-mail address, Web client data"
Learned Standing Counsel (Criminal) for respondent no.2
submits that request has already been made to the above effect by the
Law Enforcement Authority vide e-mails dated 10.01.2020 &
11.01.2020 and the procedure as prescribed to obtain information in
case of emergency as given in the reply furnished by the WhatsApp
has also been followed.
Learned Senior Counsel for respondent no.4 submits that so far
as respondent no.4 i.e. Google is concerned, upon receipt of
information from Law Enforcement Authority specifying the users
data including the Google Account (e-mail address), respondent no.4
preserves the said data available to the extent.
In view of the above submission made by Ld. Senior Counsel,
on receipt of basic subscriber information including e-mail account
from the Enforcement Authority, respondent no.4 is directed to
preserve and furnish the data available on Google Drive to the
investigating agency to the extent available.
So far as respondent no.5/ Apple is concerned, no one is present
on its behalf. Ld. Senior Counsel for the petitioners submits that they
do not claim any relief from respondent no.5 at this stage and it may
be dropped from the array of the parties.
Heard. In view of the above submission of Ld. Senior counsel
of the petitioners, respondent no.5 is dropped from the array of the
parties.
Learned Standing Counsel (Criminal) submits that notice under
Section 91 CrPC has been issued to The CSO, JNU Campus, The
Registrar JNU Campus and The Branch Manager, State Bank of India,
New JNU Campus on 06.01.2020 and again to the CSO, JNU on
10.01.2020 for providing the complete CCTV footage available to
them. However, no information has been provided so far.
Heard. All the above officials are duty bound to provide and
assist the investigating agency in the investigation of the case and are,
therefore, directed to provide the complete CCTV footage to the
Enforcement Authority at the earliest.
Investigating Officer, who is present in the Court has submitted
that all efforts are also being made to summon Members of the two
WhatsApp Group i.e. "Unity Against left" and "Friends of RSS" so that
their mobile phones may be seized for the purpose of investigation.
Heard. Let the needful be done by the investigating officer at the
earliest.
Since the matter is sensitive in nature and pertains to violence
committed in the JNU Campus in which number of students and
professors were assaulted and have sustained injuries and property
was also damaged it, therefore, needs to be probed thoroughly and
expeditiously so that such kind of incidents are not repeated in future.
In view of the above directions, passed by this Court, which
answer all the prayers made by the petitioners and there is no other
relief sought for or pressed, the present petition stands disposed of
accordingly.
Dasti.
BRIJESH SETHI, J
JANUARY 14, 2020
(Amit)
