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Home Opinion Editorials Right to Privacy: We, the privatepeople

Right to Privacy: We, the

privatepeople
With the landmark Right to Privacy verdict, SC expands the individuals
fundamental rights, etches firmer boundaries for the state. It also shows an
admirable capacity to self-correct

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By: Editorials | Updated: August 25, 2017 10:50 am

 Privacy is an intrinsic recognition of heterogeneity, of the right of the individual to be different and to
stand against the tide of conformity in creating a zone of solitude, the court said.

On Thursday, the fundamental rights of the

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Privacy ruling
Constitution will be seen in the light of its
encroachment on role
immediate context the Aadhaar case. But
of legislature, says
Mukul Rohatgi
the unanimous verdict of the nine-judge
bench is much more far-reaching than that.
A to Z of Privacy
Privacy enables each individual to take
crucial decisions which find expression in the
human personality. It enables individuals to
preserve their beliefs, thoughts, expressions,
ideas, ideologies, preferences and choices against societal demands of homogeneity.
Privacy is an intrinsic recognition of heterogeneity, of the right of the individual to
be different and to stand against the tide of conformity in creating a zone of
solitude, the court said. At a time when individuals are being told what to eat, who
 to love and marry, to respect or oppose, this assertion of the citizens autonomy
sends out an important message to both society and the state.

The nine-judge bench was necessitated because while several judgments in the past
40 years have held that there is a common law right to privacy against other
individuals and entities these rulings did not unequivocally empower the citizen
vis-a-vis the state. In 2015, during the litigation on the Aadhaar scheme, Attorney
General Mukul Rohatgi had argued that the legal position regarding the existence
of the fundamental right to privacy is doubtful. Drawing on two Supreme Court
verdicts M.P. Sharma vs Satish Chandra, 1954 and Kharak Singh vs State of UP,
1962 the attorney general had argued that the Constitution does not guarantee a
right to privacy. Thursdays judgment is a departure from such narrow and
textual interpretations of the Constitution.

Privacy with its attendant values assures dignity to the individual and it is only
when life can be enjoyed with dignity can liberty be of true substance. Privacy
ensures the fulfillment of dignity and is a core value which the protection of life
and liberty is intended to achieve, it states. At another place, it notes, The dignity
of the individual, equality between human beings and quest for liberty are the
foundational pillars of the Indian Constitution.

Right To Privacy Is A Fundamental Right, Says SC

1.00

 DEFINING fundamental rights in a manner that expands their scope has been an
evolutionary process in most mature democracies. The US, for example, has moved
away from mooring its Right to Privacy in the Fourth Amendment fundamentally
about property rights to situating the right under other guarantees in the
countrys Constitution. Since the 1970s, its highest court has drawn out the Right to
Privacy from the Concept of Ordered Liberty, the Right to Freedom of Association
and the Right Against Self-Incrimination.

Thursdays Supreme Court verdict is in the same spirit: The attempt of the court
should be to expand the reach and ambit of the fundamental rights rather than
attenuate their meaning and content by process of judicial construction, it says.
This articulation should shine the light on future jurisprudence pertaining to
fundamental rights.

There is another important lesson for future juries democratic societies require
their judiciary to self-correct. Thursdays verdict subjects some past decisions of the
Supreme Court to the test of constitutional propriety and annuls the ones found
wanting. The ADM Jabalpur v Shivakant Shukla case, in 1976, for example. The
court had then ruled that presidential consent was sufficient to annul the right to
liberty of a person who was under preventive detention. This 41-year old verdict
was critiqued by the court on Thursday as seriously flawed. Life and personal
liberty are inalienable to human existence. These rights are primordial rights. They
constitute rights under natural law.

The spirit of self-correction and commitment to human dignity are also

behind the courts decision to set aside its 2013 verdict that resuscitated Section 377.
In 2009, the Delhi High Court had revoked the criminalisation of homosexuality.
Criticising its earlier verdict, the court has vindicated the Delhi High Court ruling
which held Section 377 to be a denial of the dignity of an individual. Now, the

courts remarks will be seen as a long-awaited course correction: In a democratic

Constitution founded on the rule of law, their [minority] rights are as sacred as
those conferred on other citizens to protect their freedoms and liberties. Sexual
orientation is an essential attribute of privacy. Discrimination against an individual
on the basis of sexual orientation is deeply offensive to the dignity and self-worth of
the individual.
 THE court does impose reasonable restrictions on the Right to Privacy. But
governments would do well to heed the caveat it sets: The nature and content of
the law which imposes the restriction falls within the zone of reasonableness
mandated by Article 14, which is a guarantee against arbitrary state action. A
democracy can survive when citizens have an undiluted assurance that the rule of
law will protect their rights and liberties against any invasion by the state and that
judicial remedies would be available. Thursdays ruling is a landmark in that
respect. This verdict owes, in no small measure, to the persistence and diligence of
lawyers, activists, academics the people of India owe them a debt of gratitude.

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