PRIVACY - A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

• 9 judge bench of Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict, declared privacy as a fundamental right.
• Privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty and helps people to stand up against public sterilisation.
• Chided the government for calling it an {elitist construct}.
• It is a right enshrined in the constitution as a part of guarantee to life and liberty in the article 21 of the constitution.
• It includes preservation of personal intimacies, sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the home and sexual orientation.
• Privacy connotes a individual to be left alone. It safeguards individual autonomy, and  recognises one’s ability to control vital aspects of his/her life.
• Informational privacy is one of the facets of this right. Dangers to this can originate from state and non state actors.
• It is not an absolute right. It can be intruded by the government but only for legitimate state concerns.
• If it’s against anyone’s interest, it can be challenged in the any of the courts of judiciary.
• Government should build a robust mechanism to ensure a balance between individual interests and legitimate state concerns.
• legitimate aims of the state can be protecting national security,investigating crime,spreading innovation and knowledge, and preventing the dissipation of social welfare benefits.
•  The judgment, if it declares privacy as a fundamental right, would finally reconcile Indian laws with the spirit of Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 and Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966, which legally protects persons against the “arbitrary interference” with one’s privacy, family, home, correspondence, honour and reputation.