Right to privacy

A very fascinating development in indian constitution give dimension to article 21. Article 21 is considered as heart of fundamental rights. It includes right to privacy that is an intrinsic part of right to life and personal liberty guaranteed by part III of the constitution.
Privacy- A state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people. Legally it is right to be left alone or freedom from interference or intrusion.
In 2012, Justice K.S Puttaswamy, a retired judge of HC , filed a writ petition in SC challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar scheme that violates right to privacy. Before, this in MP Sharma vs Satish Chandra,1954 (8 Judge bench) and Kharak Singh vs State of UP, 1964 ( 6 judge bench) government argued that there was no constitutional right to privacy in article 14, 19 and 21. This matter was first placed before 5 Judge Bench and subsequently reffered to 9 Judge Bench on 18 July, 2017.
Issues- Whether Right to privacy is an intrinsic part of right to life and personal liberty under article 21

• Whether decision in MP Sharma vs Satish Chandra and Kharak Singh vs State of UP is correct in law??
  Judgment
• A nine Judge bench upheld that right to Privacy is a fundamental right and is protected under article 21.
• They overruled previous judgements i.e. MP Sharma vs Satish Chandra and Kharak Singh vs State of UP in which it was it held that there is no fundamental right to privacy.
• Also , the triple test laid down in the judgement to check if it infringe privacy.
  1) Existence of a law that would legalise the collection of data.
  2) The purpose goal is national interest, security etc that justifies collection of data.
  3) Test of proportionality to establish the connection between data collection and the objective which state is claiming to achieve.
• The SC also said that sexuality or sexual orientation is also protected under privacy. Thus had an impact on SC judgement in one of the leading case i.e. Navtej Singh Johar Case that declare Section 377 of IPC unconstitutional and curtail Right to privacy.
• The judgement also recognised the right to food as right under larger ambit of privacy.
• The judgment also stressed on the need for a data protection law to keep data in privacy.
• Based on triple test, Aadhar was declared constitutional.
  Conclusion
  In this judgement SC declared Privacy to be an integral part of the constitution which comes under the combit of Article 14 to 21 , part 3 and others.
  Article 14,19,and 21 is the golden triangle under which right to privacy is protected.