Privacy: A Utopian Dream

It is underscored that though privacy has been given the status of a fundamental right and individuals can get the same enforced against the State, a robust law, for protection of personal data, that forms part of informational privacy of an individual is the need of the hour

- Shuva Mandal and Saurabh Bindal

THE CONSTITUTION of India gives to we the people” what are known as fundamental rights. These rights were so inalienable to a human being that the drafters deemed it fit to put them in the text of the Constitution. These were brought in to reinforce the dream of having a dignified life, which of course, becomes part and parcel of human autonomy. This dream was envisaged by the drafters because of the struggle for freedom. One such fundamental right acknowledged in the Constitution was the right to life under Article 21. Article 21 of the Constitution states that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Having a life with liberty forms the basic fabric of the Constitution. Life and Liberty cannot be denied to any person except as per procedure established by law. When the Constitution was drafted, the Constituent Assembly had already debated about the pros and cons of not using due process” under Article 21.

The Courts in India have interchanged the periphery of Article 21, which was circled by procedure” established by law to read it as due process”. Article 21, today, stands as the vanguard of fundamental freedoms of an individual. It has been read to include the right to health, the right to sleep, right against noise pollution, the right to shelter, the right to food, and so on and so forth.

Privacy as a Right