Proposed Draft Right To Privacy Bill 2011 Of India

Right to Privacy is a very important Human Right. For long India ignored this important Civil Liberty despite demands for the same. Finally, Supreme Court of India interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution of India as a “Constitutional Source” of Right to Privacy in India.

Now Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right in India. However, exercise of a Fundamental Rights is very difficult in India without a support of a “Statutory Right” in this regard. This is the reason why we need to enact a Statutory Law on Right to Privacy in India.

Privacy Rights have become even more important in this Information Era where Privacy of Netizens is in real danger. Indian Government has launched various Projects like Aadhar, NATGRID, CCTNS, Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc that are openly violating the Civil Liberties, including Privacy Rights, of Indians. This has forced the Law Ministry to consider enacting a Privacy Law of India.

Law Ministry has proposed a Right to Privacy Bill of India 2011. Surprisingly, the draft of Right to Privacy Bill of India 2011 has still not been made public so its analysis is not possible. However, this is a good beginning and I welcome this step of Law Minister Veerappa Moily.

I am not sure whether Human Rights in Cyberspace have been considered by the proposed draft Right to Privacy Bill of India 2011. However, Law Ministry must incorporate Privacy Rights in Cyberspace in the proposed Bill to make it effective and meaningful.

Privacy is very important for having peaceful and confidential phone conversations, e-mail communications and other forms of electronic communications. Indian Government has launched various Projects that can openly indulge in Unconstitutional Phone Tapping and Illegal E-Surveillance that also without any “Judicial Scrutiny”.

In the absence of Judicial Scrutiny and Privacy Laws, Indian Citizens are left with no choice but to use “Technological Self Defence Measures” to protect their Privacy Rights, especially in Cyberspace. Even this is not acceptable to Indian Government as it is harassing service providers like Blackberry, Gmail, Skype, etc that are using Encrypted Measures to protect Privacy Rights and to ensure Security. This is just like committing a wrong and then taking advantage of the same to one’s own benefits.

I hope this time we would finally have a Privacy Law of India as in the past as well many times it has been declared that Privacy Law for India would be enacted.

Right To Privacy In India In Pipeline

Privacy law in India is the need of the hour. This is more so where privacy rights in India are frequently violated through various e-surveillance projects of Indian government. India has no dedicated privacy law. The Supreme Court of India interpreted it by expanding the scope of Article 21 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Indian government launched projects like Aadhar, National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Central Monitoring System (CMS), Centre for Communication Security Research and Monitoring (CCSRM), etc. None of them are governed by any Legal Framework and none of them are under Parliamentary Scrutiny.

These projects have also raised serious privacy violations issues as well that have still not been redressed by Indian government.

Realising that this may cause problems in future, the Law Ministry of India is working on a proposal to make right to privacy a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution. This is the right approach as without privacy safeguards all the recently launched projects of Indian government are “unconstitutional”.

We are working on making right to privacy a fundamental right. It is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. However, it's difficult to commit the timeframe, law minister Veerappa Moily said.

The right to privacy would include the right to confidentiality of communication, confidentiality of private or family life, protection of his honour and good name, protection from search, detention or exposure of lawful communication between individuals, privacy from surveillance, confidentiality of banking, financial, medical and legal information, protection from identity theft of various kinds, protection of use of a person's photographs, fingerprints, DNA samples and other samples taken at police stations and other places and protection of data relating to individual.

Many of these are already observed at a practical level. For example, it's a part of professional ethics of a lawyer or a doctor not to reveal details about clients or patients. The same applies for the banking sector. Apart from strengthening norms for interception of communication, the proposed Act will guarantee an individual's right to privacy. It's similar in the way the Constitution guarantees existing fundamental rights like right to equality, right to freedom of expression etc," explained a senior law ministry official.

The proposed legislation must be enacted keeping in mind the techno legal aspects. Technology would create serious challenges before Indian government and necessary provisions must be incorporated to deal with the same in future.