Authority: Supreme Court of India
Order Date: 21-07-2026
Case Overview
- Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.7141/2025 filed by S. Selvakumar against the Director General of Police & others, arising from the impugned final judgment dated 18-12-2024 in WPMD No.23982/2024 of the Madras High Court, Madurai Bench.
- Petitioner is an accused in Sessions Case No.56 of 2023 before the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Karur, and was convicted under Section 302 read with Section 120 of the IPC.
- The petitioner sought preservation and production of Call Detail Records (CDR) for mobile numbers 7639283925, 9003635299 and 9787960753 covering the period 01.09.2022 to 30.09.2022, alleging relevance to the criminal trial.
- The Madurai Bench of the High Court rejected the prayer to preserve the CDR on 18-12-2024.
- The Supreme Court, on 02.05.2025, directed the respondents to preserve the CDR for the aforesaid period and later, on 26.08.2025, ordered the State to file an affidavit on the existence of such records.
- The State filed a counter‑affidavit on 02.02.2026 stating that the investigation officer had not requested CDR during his phase and that a letter dated 12.06.2025 to the Superintendent of Police, Karur, requesting the CDR was replied to by the service provider on 13.06.2025, indicating that the records exceeded the mandatory two‑year retention period under telecom licence conditions and were therefore unavailable.
- The affidavit also highlighted that the alleged incident occurred in September 2022 and the writ petition was filed after nearly two years, with full knowledge of statutory data‑retention limits.
- During the hearing on 21-07-2026, State counsel submitted that the session case had concluded with the petitioner’s conviction, and since the request for CDR preservation was made after the two‑year period, there was no legal mandate for Vodafone to retain the records.
Final Outcome
- The Court, noting the conviction and the absence of a legal requirement to preserve the CDR beyond two years, declined to interfere with the matter.
- The Special Leave Petition is disposed of without any order to preserve or produce the CDR.
- Any pending applications, if any, are also stood disposed of.
- The petitioner remains free to raise all possible grounds, including the present one, in the appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Topics: Data Retention, Criminal Procedure