Lecture on ‘Right to Privacy’ at PU
National Tele24
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Vinay Kumar
Chandigarh
‘Emerging internet digital technology brazenly
allows others to intrude upon the privacy of individuals without
their fair consent, with almost irreversible damage and that too
with impunity’ stated Professor Virendra Kumar, Founding Director (Academics), Chandigarh
Judicial Academy; Formerly: Chairman, Department of Laws; Dean, Faculty of Law;
Fellow, Panjab University & UGC Emeritus Fellow, while delivering a special lecture
on “Dynamics of the ‘Right to Privacy’: Its characterization under the Indian Constitution.”,
here today under the ageis of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)
North-Western Regional Centre, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He further added
that this happens when the personal private data is used through unique
manipulation with precision for serving some other undisclosed purpose(s) such as
surveillance and profiling. In this context, he emphasized that it has become
an imperative constitutional obligation of the State to develop an
effective mechanism to protect the citizens against the onslaughts on privacy of the
individuals.Professor Kumar in his analytical presentation noted that it
is very well established and recognized that ‘Right to Privacy’ is
an inviolable fundamental right. This is also equally true, he
said, that no right, howsoever fundamental it may be, can be absolutely
absolute in any civilized society. In this backdrop, he dealt with the critical
question: how to reconcile the two opposing notions of ‘inviolability’ and ‘violability’
of the ‘right to privacy’ ? In view of this reinforced double value
of the right to privacy, Professor Kumar cautioned:
Privacy-interest needs to be examined with utmost care and to be limited or curtailed
only when the State/society countervailing interest is in the nature of a ‘compelling
State/social interest’ – an interest of such paramount importance as would justify
the infringement of the ‘Right of Privacy’. Specifically, he raised
and responded to the three critical questions. First, how has the
9- judge bench decision of the Supreme Court brought about a significant shift
in the prevailing notion of ‘Right to Privacy’; second, what were
the prompting considerations for the Supreme Court to re-think and
re-visit the right to privacy; and third, how such a significant
shift, in turn, may result in raising, protecting, preserving, and
promoting the ‘self-esteem’ of a human being? Professor Kumar
concluded by stating: The ‘Right to Privacy,’ for its full fructification,
eventually rests on the mutuality of Trust in all realms of life – personal,
social, political, which is created, re-created, and repeatedly
reinforced by the inviolable doctrine of basic structure of the
Constitution that ‘forever grows, but never ages;’ the
concept that always remains in the ‘state of flux’ or ‘state of being,’
reminding us continually of the foundational value of Constitutional Morality, conveying,
as if, ‘even in contract, everything is not contractual!
Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.Kannan, Chairman, Railway Claims Tribunal,
New Delhi (Formerly, Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at
Chandigarh) observed that how best one can preserve ‘Right to
Privacy’ is to be transparent in life. This is the only way
by which the ‘Right to Privacy’ can be preserved and protected. Earlier,
Professor Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh, in
his welcome address expressed that the force to preserve personal privacy must emanate
from within, which in functional terms lies in the performance of one’s own duties.
This is the only way by which the privacy could be functionally preserved quoting
Bhagwat Gita and Ram Charitra Maanas. Professor Sanjay Kaushik,
Honorary Director, ICSSR North-Western Regional Centre, P.U. elaborated
various schemes and facilities being provided by the ICSSR and stressed that if
an individual is transparent in life then he does not need the protection of
‘Right to Privacy’. Professor Devinder Singh, Deptt. of
Laws, and Ambedkar Centre proposed the vote of thanks.
