Privacy includes at its core the preservation of personal intimacies, the sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the home and sexual orientation. Privacy also connotes a right to be left alone. Privacy safeguards individual autonomy and recognises the ability of the individual to control vital aspects of his or her life. Personal choices governing a way of life are intrinsic to privacy. Privacy protects heterogeneity and recognises the plurality and diversity of our culture. While the legitimate expectation of privacy may vary from the intimate zone to the private zone and from the private to the public arenas, it is important to underscore that privacy is not lost or surrendered merely because the individual is in a public place. Privacy attaches to the person since it is an essential facet of the dignity of the human being.

Privacy is the constitutional core of human dignity. An excerpt of the lead judgment of 265 pages, authored by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and co-signed by Chief Justice Khehar and Justices Nazeer and Agrawal states  as the Supreme Court today ruled the Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right.

In an age of heightened surveillance, vigilantism, unchecked citizen journalism and social media etc, Right to Privacy is crucial and much needed even more so than fundamental rights such as freedom of speech one would say.

It's a 'right to be let alone' - in other words, human beings need a kind of sphere in which they're guaranteed to be free of interference or, indeed, surveillance by government. Another way of looking at is to say that you have a right as a human being to have some control over what type of information you choose to disclose to other people, and that when either the government or the mass media acquire information about you without your consent, and then publish that to the world or use it for their own purposes, that violates your autonomous right to control information about yourself.

The SC judgement is historic especially because of the times we live in.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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