Article 21 of the Constitution of India states that "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law" which directly shows that a person can enjoy full liberty and pursue his life as the way he/ she wants to. If somebody, by any reason tries to violate it (Privacy of an individual) will be prosecuted. On August 24, 2017 A bench of 9 judges of Supreme Court of India including CJI J.S. Khehar has delivered the judgment that Right to privacy is a fundamental right of every citizen of India. Now, the question arises here is that if Right to privacy under Article 21 is a fundamental right then how the authority i.e. the government agencies and the other security agencies can interfere in someone's private and personal liberty? Isn't it violating the fundamental right for which the offenders need to be penalized? The point come to an individual's mind is that if a person free to do anything which is not forbidden by law then why the breach of the privacy of an individual's is done?

Then simultaneously if we look at the problem faced by the security agencies make us feel that the breach done by the agency to monitor the activity of that individual was legal and needs no penalization. Privacy includes every private, personal, consensual or non-consensual matter of an individual. If that privacy is disclosed the personal life, status and reputation of an individual may get affected in the society. Privacy also includes the biometric data of the citizens, the details of their bank account, the medical data prescriptions and sometimes the social networking sites too. If the privacy is disclosed the individual may go in the state of depression, or his personal life may get destroyed. In this matter, Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Anr. V. Union of India and ors [write petition (civil) 494, 2012 S.C.] passed a landmark judgment that a person's privacy Right is protected as a fundamental right as under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India not only protects but respect every citizen. India is the second largest democracy which has too many different sections. Section here is the category of people belonging to different sex, class, caste, religion and region etc.

But nowadays the government has allowed the security agencies to interfere in person’s social media accounts, as much as in personal life under Article 21, the Supreme Court of India has legalized the relation between same sex. The Supreme Court of India on 6 September 2018, delivered the legalization of same sex intercourse and has quashed Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The question again arises that Is legislation trying to dominate the order of the honourable court. Not at all the government interfering in personal life of a person is trying to monitor the activities which may be unusual. The Government has ordered some of the agencies like NIA, RAW and IT department to monitor the activities which  may be suspicious except those consensual. This monitoring includes Telephone tapping, hacking of the email Ids, reading text messages and the interfering in social media accounts etc. It is always observed that if something is achieved without hard work and risk it does not retain to us for long time. So the government is trying to work hard in the development & is trying to work hard in the development of IT department and wants to retain the peace in country. The recent news of breach of privacy of Cambridge University by facebook was criticized and that was not fair with it (that breach of privacy). Do we have focused on the interfering on the individuals account or data, but security agencies have.

The reason for such interference is national security. The government and security agencies are always monitoring the activities of citizens. It will reduce terrorist activities, it will help in monitoring a person’s bank account and source of money, riots can be revoked, criminals can be caught easily, and penalization will be easy too. Everything in this universe has pros and cons, so as this right to privacy.

Before 90’s there was no requirement of privacy laws, IT laws etc, but with development in information technology citizens have started using technology not according to this needs but according to their greed’s. In India there is a requirement of data protection laws because nowadays the telecom companies, illegal hackers and unsocial citizens (for illegal means) are mishandling the data. On the other hand, government itself is trying to access the data of all the citizens. If we take the example of few months back accused citizens, were believed to have link with ISIS. He was arrested by the monitoring system by interfering in his privacy which shows that if the monitoring of data is done in good faith it will be a boon otherwise it is known as Breach of privacy. In this era the interference in the privacy of citizens has become requirement. The government has introduced new sections 43A and 72A in IT act, which talk about civil penalties and criminal prosecution respectively if someone try to interfere or restraint the personal liberty of an individual. Nowadays the IT department is trying to defeat end-to-end encryption which will really be a breach of privacy; it means that the government is trying to take control in their hand by monitoring the group chats and personal chats of a citizen.

Every individual wants a free space in society which is free from societal boundations. In case of Smt. Maneka Gandhi Vs Union of India, 1978. Seven judge bench by Supreme Court, this made a clear way for space free from societal norms and similarly in case of Naz Foundation case, 2009, that If someone wants to maintain his/her privacy as homosexual or transgender then they can.  Article 14, 19 and 21, make every individual an essential element of the society. Right to privacy gives right to every individual to maintain their privacy or they want to expose it or not. These all are the matter of privacy and based on totally discretion of the individual. To share or disclosure of the privacy in public.

According to present scenario, the government should make new laws which penalize the offensive, illegal or unwanted chats or the IT department should develop a software which may catch the talk of anti-national or forbidden words when take place. Suggestion can be many but implementation are few. Right to privacy can also be interpreted and understood as ‘Right to be let alone’ a statement by warren and brandies. Agencies dealing with the problem must focus on status and dignity of the individual before disclosing it in public or no need to disclose until something offensive got in between. Data protection is as equal as protection of citizens. Let’s understand it by an example suppose an individual has murdered someone and is also suffering from TB disease, the disclosure of his offence and act must be done, but not about his disease in public. Like that the data stored in university, banks, hospitals, and MNC’s and on social networking sites. The citizens as well as the government both are equally liable in protection of data and maintaining the privacy of each other.

By Vikas Pratap Singh

BA LLB, 2 Semester

TIPS, Dwarka.