Bengaluru, July 3 -- The Madras high court on Wednesday held that phone tapping, even to detect a crime, amounts to the violation of an individual's fundamental right to privacy, unless it is strictly justified under a procedure established by law. The court said that the existing provisions of the Telegraph Act and Telegraph Rules do not permit covert interception of phone calls or messages of an individual merely to detect the commission of a crime. Such surveillance, the court said, is permissible only in cases of public emergency or in the interest of public safety. Justice N Anand Venkatesh, accordingly, quashed an authorisation issued by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) in 2011 for tapping the phone of a Chennai resident invol...