• The right to privacy is not just a common law right, not just a legal right, not just a fundamental right under the Constitution. It is a natural right inherent in every individual. 

• This, in sum, is the law laid down by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in K. Puttaswamy v Union of India. This finding of the Supreme Court has not come out of the blue.

• The judgment has consolidated the development of the law into a grand judgment of six concurring opinions that definitively lays down these principles.

• The judgment is also part of the changing view of the Supreme Court on what are fundamental rights. Reading the right to privacy into each and every one of the fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution has meant that the scope and depth of these rights have been expanded.

• The right to privacy is not an elitist concern, not just a modern myth, or entirely irrelevant in the internet age. Any notion that the right to privacy is an impediment to social welfare in any way, and the idea that those who seek socio-economic security do not care about their civil and political rights.

• Three elements are considered as the core to the right to privacy: Personal autonomy, the freedom to make choices and the right to determine what happens with information about oneself. 

The consequence:

• The basis for state interference with privacy (by law or action) will have to meet the standards of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court over the years.

• The laws interfering with privacy will have to not only be just, fair and reasonable but also have to be based on the grounds enunciated in Part III.

• This expands the scope of judicial review of such laws and raises the burden on governments to ensure the constitutionality of laws.

Source:IE