Right to Privacy under the Constitution of India

Jaya Kosley

Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur

ABSTRACT: Article on Right to privacy: In this article, I try to write a one stop shop for all privacy related information in India as well as try to make the Indian reader understand why privacy is so important for us as a democratic and open society

INTRODUCTION:

Objectivity and Truth: You'd Better Believe It", “We want to live decent, worthwhile lives, lives we can look back on with pride not shame. We want our communities to be fair and good and our laws to be wise and just”. By this statement issue that always remains to be addressed is that in an age of revolutionized communications, privacy is clearly under siege but lawmakers have shown scarce concern on the issue. While in many other countries, there are now a variety of statutes in place that seeks to protect these rights, Indian laws on the subject lag far behind. The understanding of Privacy is still in infancy in India. We’re still at the stage where we feel that better security and information about everything is always a good thing. The danger is that by the time we realize that our hard earned freedoms have been lost, it can be too late. This is not malicious of the Government.

They genuinely believe that they’re doing the right thing because the people of this country haven’t realized what the real loss of privacy means. The right to privacy presents itself as an illustration of the interpretative capabilities of the higher judiciary, as well as a right emanating as a consequence of the larger process of widening the ambit of specifically enumerated fundamental rights. This shall be critically examined in the context of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Kharak Singh v. State of Punjab. The literal meaning of privacy, as defined in The Black’s Law Dictionary refers to privacy as “the right to be let alone; the right of a person to be free from unwarranted publicity; and the right to live without unwarranted interference by the public in matters with which the public is not necessarily concerned”

The Indian’s don’t take their privacy very seriously. But as more and more people improve their economic situation, they will start to demand the right to privacy that is guaranteed to them and the right to be free of surveillance without just cause.The right to privacy would include the right to confidentiality of communication, confidentiality of private or family life, protection of his honour and good name, protection from search, detention or exposure of lawful communication between individuals, privacy from surveillance, confidentiality of banking, financial, medical and legal information, protection from identity theft of various kinds, protection of use of a person's photographs, fingerprints, DNA samples and other samples taken at police stations and other places and protection of data relating to individual.

In India, the privacy laws are not explicitly present in India. The right to privacy is an implicit right mentioned in the Constitution of India article 21 [1] [2]. For enforcing this right and paving a way for protecting it for the citizens of the India nation, stringent laws must be formulated that would be helpful to save the privacy rights of the people. In today’s scenario when many Indians are being fooled by private organizations that take up their data and their phone numbers and then make unnecessary and unwanted calls to people, the Indians would be in a condition to ask for restricting them in case if they do not wish to entertain such calls. United Kingdom provides for telecommunication directives that state that even the telephone lines allotted in the name of an individual should not be used by another without seeking permission. If such things come into force in India and people are made aware of their rights, we can avoid many conditions where people are befooled and their property or money is taken over by other people or organizations.

Therefore, the right to privacy, notwithstanding its differing connotations, remains a private right of an individual.

Received on 20.02.2012

Revised on 16.03.2012

Accepted on 23.03.2012