Examine the scope of Fundamental Rights in the light of the latest judgement of the Supreme Court on Right…

Question

Examine the scope of Fundamental Rights in the light of the latest judgement of the Supreme Court on Right to Privacy.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

The Puttaswamy judgment (2017) widened Fundamental Rights by holding privacy intrinsic to Articles 14, 19 and 21, treating rights as natural and interlinked and subjecting intrusions to proportionality. Executive-authorised surveillance and the state exemptions in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 still limit that scope.

**Introduction**

In K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) a nine-judge bench unanimously held privacy to be a fundamental right intrinsic to Article 21 and Part III, overruling M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962) and redrawing the scope of Fundamental Rights.

**How Puttaswamy Widened the Scope of Fundamental Rights**

SKETCH: venn | Privacy in the Golden Triangle
a: Art 14 Equality
b: Art 19 Freedoms
c: Art 21 Life
overlap: Privacy

1. **Rights read together**: Privacy was located across Articles 14, 19 and 21, confirming that Part III is an integrated whole.
2. **Natural, not granted**: The plurality called privacy an inalienable natural right and declared the ADM Jabalpur (1976) majority seriously flawed.
3. **Proportionality test**: Any intrusion must pass legality, a legitimate aim and proportionality, protecting bodily integrity, personal data and decisional autonomy.

**The Expanded Scope in Practice and Its Limits**

1. **Liberty judgments**: Navtej Singh Johar (2018) and Joseph Shine (2018) built on its dignity reasoning, and the Aadhaar judgment (2018) struck down Section 57's private use.
2. **Surveillance gap**: Manohar Lal Sharma (2021) held national security no free pass and probed Pegasus, yet interception is still authorised by the executive alone.
3. **Statutory dilution**: The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 lets the Union exempt its own agencies from the law.

**Way Forward**

1. **Oversight and narrow exemptions**: A surveillance law with judicial authorisation, as the Srikrishna Committee (2018) urged, and an independent Data Protection Board would give proportionality teeth.

**Conclusion**

Puttaswamy made Fundamental Rights inherent, interlinked and testable by proportionality. Its promise becomes real only when surveillance and data law conform to it, protecting dignity as the core of constitutional morality.

Examine the scope of Fundamental Rights in the light of the latest judgement of the Supreme Court on Right to Privacy.

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