A study on Right to Privacy in light of K.S. Puttaswamy v Union of India

We are living in the age of globalization which means we are connected with the whole world without being physically present there. This is possible because of rapidly improving internet sources. Now it is convenient for us to communicate trade, interact and connect with the world with the use of these sources. It becomes our necessity rather than just convenience. But by using these internet sources, somehow we have to compromise with our privacy. A lot of discussions have been done and debates were going on this burning issue. Puttaswamy Judgment is a landmark judgment on this issue which raised some bars of restrictions on the intruders of privacy. On analyzing this judgment Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and Data Protection Bill, 2021 came into existence but these are still struggling to come into force. A bench of nine-judges of the Supreme Court of India has upheld unanimously that the right to privacy is a constitutional right, like other freedoms given by the Indian Constitution. The petition was filed by Justice K. S. Puttaswamy(Retd.) and another. In that petition, he challenged the Government’s proposed scheme for a uniform biometrics-based identity card which would be mandatory for access to government services and benefits. In opposing the petition, the central government argued that in the Constitution there is no provision for specific protection for the right to privacy. But the Supreme Court decided that privacy is an incident of fundamental freedom or liberty guaranteed under Article 21 which provides that: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”. So, this is a landmark judgment which is going to lead to constitutional challenges to a wide range of Indian legislation, for example legislation criminalizing same-sex relationships as well as bans on beef and alcohol consumption in many Indian States. Experts are expecting that the Indian Government to establish a data protection act to protect the privacy of the every individual.