Author: Parikshit Bajaj, BBA.LLB(H), LLM, GGSIP UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI (ADVOCATE).
Co-Author: Vishal Aggarwal, BBA.LLB(H), LLM, GGSIP UNIVERSITY, NEW DELHI (ADVOCATE).
INTRODUCTION
Privacy may be referred to as a position or a state which allows a person to be free from any kind of public or private intrusion, or the right of the person to be left free and alone. Secluding and keeping away the intruders from the personal life may be referred to as the essence of privacy. It is important to note that the privacy can be looked upon back from the antiquity. In simple words, the individual’s right to be let alone is the basis of privacy. Privacy may be taken into consideration by the way of physical or visual privacy, or privacy of person’s family, or against the intruder exploiting the communication privacy or information privacy. The concept of privacy is not new but, is ambit has been broadened. A woman, is not ought to be seen by strangers according to Ramayana or the right and duty to build one’s house protecting one’s privacy in relation with religious rights, customs, etc. under the Grihya Sutras or prevention of trespassers by the Arthashastra or prohibition made by the Islamic law for peeping into others house may be referred to as some of the examples of prevalence of privacy from the ancient times. Though, the concept of privacy has increased its ambit in order to maintain law and order in the society and in consideration with the basic law of land since in the present scenario, the use of information technology has been creating a lot of privacy issues, with regards to person’s individual as well as the nation’s overall crucial information, which gives rise to creating obstructions to the person’s individual freedom ensured by article 21 of the Constitution of India. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, privacy is the condition of the state of being free from public attention to intrusion into and interference with one’s act or decisions. Privacy may broadly be referred to as the protection of the following four rights:-
- Bodily Privacy:
This is the foremost and one of the fundamental concerns of the Right to Privacy which is concerned with the physical protection of an individual. It bars the authorities from any kind of illegal intrusion, searches or investigation. The main focus of this principle is to restrict the authorities from overreaching of their power. Such instances are common in the current time; Narco analysis, clandestine photography are some of the examples to which this principle applies. These circumstances usually cause a lot of emotional and mental torture and hence make the application of such law important at the current time.
- Privacy of Family Life:
This principle focuses on the person’s right to stop any kind of intrusion on his property, or with his family members. Such kind of situations may be observed majorly in cases of celebrities and famous personalities. This principle enables them and other family members of his/ her family to abstain themselves from any kind of public intrusion. This also ensures the privacy of sexual relationships within the house and other family discussions.
- Privacy in Communication sector:
The third principle of privacy revolves around maintaining the secrecy and confidentiality within the communication sectors. The growth of communication sector in India has been significant and has great influence on the person’s lifestyle but, in relation to the same, has also increased the chances of infringement of communication privacy, either by the means of tapping, hacking or snooping. This has given rise to the need of creating strict and mandatory inculcation of laws in the prevailing administrative system in order to maintain the privacy within the communication sector and to ensure a person, free, uninterrupted and safe passage of communication.
- Information Privacy:
This concept of privacy has been recently observed by the Indian judicial system in contrast to Unique Identification Authority of India, the Aadhaar case. This, principle focuses on maintaining the privacy of distribution of personal information relating to Person’s income, financial, health records, without the reasonable requirement.
