New Delhi Nov 30 PTI The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed maintenance of status quo on the elections to the executive committee of the Indian Olympic Association IOA which was scheduled for December 19A bench of Justices Manmohan and Najmi Waziri passed the interim order on a plea by senior advocate Rahul Mehra and listed the matter for further hearing on December 2The court was hearing an application by Mehra in which he submitted that the proposed elections to be held on December 19 is wholly illegal and unsustainable and ought not to be conducted pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition and various applications pending before it He claimed that the IOA has notified its elections and is proposing to hold the same in violation of the orders of the court the law of the land the National Sports Development Code of India and various other directives He has sought directions to refrain the Centre from acting arbitrarily or indulging in action in abject violation and desertion of its dutiesHe also urged the court to reschedule the elections PTI SKV RKS RKS

New Delhi Sep 21 PTI The Delhi High Court Tuesday said the Income Tax department is bound by its assurance to maintain confidentiality of the material seized during a survey operation at news portal Newslaundrys premises and to ensure that it is not leaked The court which was hearing a petition by the news portal and its co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri said the grievances related to a challenge to the survey operation can be agitated by them at a subsequent stage if required Rights and contention of parties are kept open the bench stated Counsel for the I-T department assured a bench of Justices Manmohan and Navin Chawla that the material seized by the authorities will be used only in accordance with the law which may include sharing it with other government agencies and will not be leaked to third parties Seized material is in safe custody of the Income Tax department Seized material shall not be leaked It will be illegal to leak such material said lawyer Ajit Sharma for the department The respondent assures and undertakes before the court that the seized material shall not be leaked and the concept of confidentially as enshrined in the Income Tax Act shall be abided The said undertaking given by the respondent is accepted by the court and respondent is held bound by it the court recorded Senior counsel Siddhartha Dave representing the petitioners stated that the apprehension of a leak would not have arisen had the department given them an opportunity to delete personal data before taking it away However in view of the I-T departments assurance he informed the court that he would not press the prayer with respect to a challenge to the survey operation at this stage On September 17 the court had granted time to the I-T department to clarify its stand on giving an undertaking against any leak of seized material in the present case Senior counsel for the petitioners while seeking a direction to the I-T authorities not to leak any data and delete whatever is of no relevance to the proceedings had said that four notices under the I-T Act were issued to his client He said the survey was held at the news portals premises on September 10 during which several devices including a mobile phone and a laptop belonging to the petitioner co-founder were seized by the I-T authorities which contained information which has no relevance to any income tax proceedings The seized data might contain personal photos and information pertaining to investigative stories The senior lawyer argued that any data breach would be in violation of right to privacy and therefore a direction should be passed to the IT authorities to not leak any data and delete whatever is of no relevance to the proceedings It was also contended that any seizure during a survey operation was beyond the scope of survey and that no hash value of the seized data was given In the petition filed through advocate Nipun Katyal the petitioners said that the income tax officers and authorities do not have any power to interrupt the ordinary peaceful citizens of the country in any manner they like by utilizing the large powers given to them without keeping strictly within the four corners of those large powers The Petitioners are heading a news organization the Petitioners herein have sources contacts and other information on the digital machines It is the fiduciary duty of the Petitioners to protect them and keep it confidential It is further submitted that the legal communication regarding existing cases is present in the personal laptop and phone of the Petitioners If in any circumstances the leaks are committed it shall be a clear breach of the attorney client privilege as well as whistleblowers confidentiality the plea added PTI ADS SA