How Right To Privacy Judgment Impact Us

Narendra Kumar

11 Apr, 2019

Two years back, the Supreme Court has declared privacy as the fundamental right for all citizens in India under Article 21 and Part III of the constitution. It is actually considered a great victory for privacy. The definition and scope of privacy have been decided based on the case. In this article, we will discuss how the right to privacy judgment impacts us.

This historic judgment is going to celebrate its second anniversary soon. Now, it is the right time to understand how the Right to privacy judgment impacts the lives of the citizens and other entities. Before knowing the impact of this great judgment made by the nine-judge bench in the Supreme Court, let us have a glance at the highlights of this judgment.

What are the key highlights on the right to private judgment?

Look at the major highlights of the Right to privacy judgment given by the nine-judge bench in 2017.

• Life and personal liberty are undeniable rights, which are actually inseparable from the dignified human
• Personal choices governing the way of life are fundamental to privacy
• Judicial recognition of the previous constitutional right of privacy is not put into effect in the nature of the amending
• Privacy has both negative and positive content. The positive content entails the obligation of the state to take fundamental measures to safeguard individual privacy. The negative content hold back the state from committing an intrusion upon personal and life liberty of the citizen
• Privacy includes at the core the sanctity of the marriage, family life, sexual orientation, procreation, and preservation of personal intimacies
• Privacy not surrendered or lost as the individual is in the public location because it is attached to the person as it is a vital facet of the human dignity
• Transformation of technology has offered rise to concerns that not present before seven decades and the fastest technological growth may render outdated notions of the present. Therefore, constitution interpretation must be flexible and resilient to let future generation to adapt its content by keeping its basic and important features in mind
• Being the fundamental right, the right of privacy safeguards the inner facets of the individual from the interference of state and non-state actors and then lets the individuals make any life choice

How do rights to privacy judgment impact us?

The right to privacy is one of the most ingrained and embedded rights of every citizen. This fundamental right is guaranteed by the Indian constitution. The nine Supreme Court judges also told that this common verdict should affect every individual in the country.  The judges also told privacy comes under the right to liberty and life, which overrule Government arguments. Take a look at the top ways in which the rights of a private judgment impacts Indian citizens.

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• As mentioned prior, rights of privacy are the most ingrained right of every Indian citizen. The Supreme Court judges acknowledged there should be restrictions within reasons on the individual privacy
• After the announcement of this judgment, the ordinary man can approach the Supreme Court or State High Courts directly for the violation of his /her fundamental rights under the constitution.
• By declaring that privacy is safeguarded under the constitution, the court has armed the common man against unfair state interferences and safeguarded informational/data privacy in the digital age
• One of the lawyers who combat for the petitioners, Udayaditya Banerjee told us that the judgment has stated that we have a basic Right to privacy and therefore we need not worry about the Aadhar scheme that needs people to share their personal and sensitive details such as biometric data.
• The court also told the right to privacy primarily from the guarantee of personal and life liberty. The privacy elements also arise from the dignity and freedom assured by the fundamental rights
• The privacy ruling may also affect DNA based technology bill 2017, which let the Government set up the DNA databank and then utilize data/information for forensic purposes. It has been raised concerns about individual privacy
• The judgment verdict restored the ban on gay sex, which can be quite challenged after the Supreme Court told privacy is safeguarded as the basic part of the right to life and personal liberty
• According to a petitioner of this case, this judgment would surely protect the citizens against the misuse of the information including messages, calls, photos, etc. As information becomes a dangerous weapon against humans in this digital era, this judgment will surely meet every citizen’s expectation and ensure that they are safe in their ambiance.
• The judgment also affects other cases such as challenging Facebook access to information of the Indian Whatsapp users as a violation of privacy. This is clearly showing that this historic judgment safeguard us in several cases

What are the impacts of the right to private judgment on other cases?

• Aadhaar card

In the digital age, people used to share all of their life activities on social media platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook. Twitter, and even over emails. Therefore, data protection becomes a primary need for every citizen to safeguard his or her life and privacy. In legal terms^[1], it is the fundamental and basic right to life.

At present, text-messaging apps like Whatsapp is confronting the legal challenge at the Supreme Court for sharing chats with Facebook. This new privacy policy has been criticized a lot for not rendering people real choices. In fact, Facebook India has come forward to clarify the way it satisfies all sorts’ of legal needs in India before the Supreme Court.

The case pertaining to Whatsapp also raised broader concerns for almost all the internet companies including Google, Yahoo, and others. This privacy judgment will affect all these companies in India.

Freedom of expression

In India, IT laws are yet to tolerate with the dynamic digital space. Fortunately, the Supreme Court had struck down the IT Act 66A under which several people arrested for criticizing government, and politicians.

The court also told that liberty is impacted when the Governments prosecute citizens for expressing their opinions. It helps citizen to know what extent can someone post my personal information on Facebook and other platforms without their permission and claim when privacy is affected.

Sexuality and privacy

Homosexuality is the much-criticized judgment of the Right to privacy offered by the Supreme Court where they asked the Parliament to legislate and then uphold section 377. According to this section, having homosexual activity between two adults criminalizes.

When privacy is the fundamental right, then how can state or central interfere in our personal space? Court has also agreed to take a fresh and deep look at the homosexuality in the curative petition. The privacy scope will influence directly the cause of decriminalizing homosexuality in the country.

The recent judgment pertaining to the Right to privacy has several impacts on citizens of the country. If you wish to know more information about such judgments, then feel free to contact us at Enterslice.