Privacy is a sacrosanct right that any civilized
society must recognise. However, we have no dedicated privacy
rights and laws in India. This is despite the fact
that privacy
laws in India and privacy rights in India have been
constantly demanded in India by various civil liberty stakeholders.
Even we have no dedicated data
protection laws in India as on date.
This is bizarre as in the present information and
communication technology (ICT) era absence of privacy and data
protection laws in India are more by design than ignorance. Techno
legal experts in India have been suggesting that we must give a
special attention to the privacy
rights in India in the information age.
They maintain that privacy and data protection
requirements are essential part of civil
liberties protection in cyberspace. It would not be wrong
to assume privacy and data protection rights as integral part of
human
rights protection in cyberspace.
Fortunately, privacy rights issue is pending
before the Supreme Court of India due to leakage of tapped
conversation between Ratan Tata and Nira Radia. The Supreme
Court of India must expand privacy rights in India as that
is the need of hour. However, while respecting the privacy rights of
Ratan Tata we cannot exclude the right of others to information.
Clearly, there is a conflict between right to privacy and right to
information that needs to be resolved by the Indian Supreme Court.
According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal
expert of Asia and managing partner of ICT law firm Perry4Law,
“The Indian Constitutional Scheme is based upon “Balance of
Rights” and no right is absolute in nature. In case of conflict
between two Fundamental Rights, the Fundamental Right that
strengthens and substantiate the Public Interest should prevail”.
Hence if there is a conflict between Right to Privacy and Right to
Information/know, information can be disclosed in certain
circumstances to substantiate and strengthen Public Interest, opines
Dalal.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India has warned
that privacy violations may also pose national
security problems in India. The court has asked Indian
government to keep in place a system that can maintain the safety and
privacy of any intercepted and tapped conversation. Let us see what
would be the stand of Centre in this regard during the next hearing.
