Marital Privacy And Digital Surveillance: Legal Boundaries Under Indian Family Law
- IJLLR Journal
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
Parth Attry, Chandigarh University
ABSTRACT
The ubiquity of digital technology has irrevocably transformed human relationships and the landscape of matrimonial disputes in India. Increasingly, parties in legal confrontations such as divorce, cruelty accusations, infidelity claims, and child custody battles resort to the monitoring of WhatsApp messages and other digital surveillance activities to substantiate their positions. This new frontier raises challenging issues at the confluence of spousal rights, consent, dignity, and personal liberty. While Indian courts have articulated constitutional values such as dignity and autonomy, the legal framework remains ambiguous regarding the curtailment of a spouse’s right to privacy for the sake of family law remedies.
This article critically examines marital privacy as a facet of the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which enshrines the right to life and personal liberty and serves as the constitutional foundation for privacy claims in India. It evaluates the legal justifiability of spousal surveillance by analyzing statutory law, judicial trends, and the evolving societal context. The article compares Indian jurisprudence to global standards, referencing international human rights law and parallel legal developments in jurisdictions such as the USA and Europe. Furthermore, it investigates the unique challenges of digital evidence, ranging from consent issues to the authenticity and admissibility of intercepted messages. The investigation highlights the dangers of normalizing digital snooping in marriages not just as a legal ambiguity, but as a potential affront to human dignity and trust.
Critical research questions include: Can spousal surveillance be legally or ethically justified as evidence in family law disputes? Should the right to privacy be absolute between marital partners, or are exceptions warranted in allegations of cruelty, abuse, or custody? The study concludes that India’s evolving privacy laws require urgent reforms to reconcile individual liberty with the need for effective family law remedies. Tailored safeguards are proposed, including explicit legislative provisions on digital evidence in marriages, clarity on the limits of consensual monitoring, and judicial recognition of the complex interplay between privacy and justice. Such reforms would harmonize technological realities with constitutional values, fostering both justice and dignity within family relationships. As Indian society continues its rapid digitalization, the legal and ethical dilemmas of marital privacy and surveillance will remain at the forefront of matrimonial justice debates.
