Privacy a fundamental right, says Supreme Court
It was a red letter day for Indian democracy as the Supreme Court of India in an unanimous judgment of 9 nil upheld the individual’s right to privacy as a fundamental right.
‘Privacy is the constitutional core of human dignity. Privacy ensures the fulfillment of dignity.’ opined Justice D.Y. Chandrachud. The Centre had argued against recognition of privacy as a fundamental right. It assured the court that privacy would be protected through parliamentary statutes. To this the court replied that statutory laws ‘can be made and also unmade by simple Parliamentary majority. The ruling party can, at will, do away with any or all of the protections contained in the statutes. Fundamental rights are rights citizens may enjoy despite the government they elect,’ pronounced Justice Rohington F. Nariman.
The Court took issue with the government over its description of the right to privacy as an ‘elitist construct.’
‘The refrain that that the poor need no civil and political rights and are concerned only with economic well-being has been utilized through history to wreak the most egregious violations of human rights. It is privacy, as an intrinsic and core feature of life and personal liberty, which enables individuals to stand up against a programme of forced sterilization. It is the right to question, scrutinize, dissent which enables an informed citizenry to scrutinize the actions of government,’ said Justice Chandrachaud, countering Mr Venugopal’s argument, pressed his point with acuity. Privacy is the bedrock protection of ‘personal liberty and of liberties, it is guaranteed by the provisions of Part III of the Constitution, the submission that privacy is only a right at common law misses the wood for the trees. Privacy postulates the reservation of a private space for the individual, described as the right to be left alone. The concept is founded on the autonomy of the individual. The ability of an individual to make choices lies at the core of the human personality…I do not think anybody would like to be told by the state as to what they should eat or how they should dress…’ Solomon in all his glory could not have spoken with such wisdom and common sense.
A short summary of specific sections of the court’s judgment should buttress understanding of its broader framework. The court judged that one’s sexual orientation was an attribute of privacy.
Can the right to privacy be sustained in the age of internet and data searches? The Supreme Court recognized the challenge of sharing personal data and companies collating data for commercial gain. It has asked the government to provide a robust data protection regime. New legislation on this subject is work in progress.
A three-judge bench is to examine the question of the Aadhar Card Identification in all its aspects in pursuance of the broader context of individual privacy. The consensus is that Aadhar Card is here to stay, for the benefits to the ordinary citizen are self-evident, but clear guidelines are likely to be issued to Government for safeguards in usage.
However, the Court’s ruling permits the government to collate data if this is called for reasons of national security or for equitable, effective distribution of scarce resources such as food and other basic items for a fairer livelihood.
The Supreme Court judgment was widely welcomed across the political spectrum, with Law Minister Rudi Prasad issuing a statement of support, and by opposition party leaderships. The fly in the ointment was Rahul Gandhi’s intemperate words. ‘SC decision marks a major blow to fascist forces. A sound rejection of the BJP’s ideology of suppression through surveillance.’
Make of this what you will. The concluding sentence is a solecism, and hence baffling to rational discourse. More unelectable by the hour and day, India’s pocket Duce and his mother Sonia Gandhi, Duchess-President of the Congress party, have no serious political future. So the sooner the party faithful come to terms with reality the better for Indian politics. The 44 Congress MPs in Parliament, a rump of the 206 elected previously, is likely to be reduced further insignificance come the next general election. And then there’ll be none.
Triple Talaq struck down as unconstitutional
Instant Talaq or instant, divorce was struck down last week by the Supreme Court of India as unconstitutional, that it violated Muslim women’s right to equality. The verdict affects one of three forms of talaq or divorce initiated by the husband. The Supreme Court verdict was delivered by a 3-2 majority, with three judges – Justices Joseph Kurien, R.F. Narriman and U.U. Lalit – belonging respectively, to the Christian, Parsi Zoroastrian and Hindu communities outlawing it, with Chief Justice J.S Khehar, a Sikh and Justice Abdul Nazeer a Muslim contended that, ‘Personal law has constitutional protection. This protection is extended to personal law through Article 25 of the Constitution. It needs to be kept in mind that the stature of personal law is that of a fundamental right.’ If Government passed a law banning Hindus performing Triple Talaq just as it banned Sati, equality would be restored and the way open to ban Triple Talaq – surely a pedantic observation lacking common sense, which is the basis of good law. However, Chief Justice Khehar, Justices Nazeer and Kurien pronounced the Government was competent to reform personal laws on grounds of public order, health and morality.
Prime Minister Modi reacted warmly to the Supreme Court verdict. ‘Judgment is historic. It grants equality to Muslim women and is a powerful measure for women’s empowerment.’
Consider the following cases. Shyara Bano, mother of two, had filed the Supreme Court petition in 2016. A year earlier she was divorced via speed post. She exclaimed, ’My daughter will now not have to face such regressive practices when she grows up.
Atiya Sabri, a post-graduate in sociology, received a scribbled divorce note from husband Wazid Ali.
Married at 15, Ishrat Jahan bore Mohammed Murtuza Ansari four children before her husband divorced her with a casual telephone call from Dubai in 2014, he then remarried. Once a docile Kolkata house wife, Ishrat Jahan’s eyes sparkle with a new determination: enough is enough. She described how she was molested by an in-law and sought to be driven from her home; they cut off her electricity, forcing her to live in darkness. The police, indifferent, ignored her complaints. Her lawyer Nazia Elahi Khan stood by her and registered an appeal to the Supreme Court. Ishrat Jahan says, ‘Only when society reforms itself can the lot of Muslim women improve. I hope this verdict leads to introspection. What it will surely do is give other women the courage to fight injustice.’ Well put. More power to her elbow.
Paleontologists make unique discovery
A team of paleontologists at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, have discovered fossilized remains of a horned herbivorous reptile that roamed the Satpura-Gondwana basin of central India more than 250 million years ago. Belonging to the Triassic period that lasted between 251 and 199 million years, preceding the Jurassic age of dinosaurs, the discovery could shed new light on the history of evolution and its life forms.
This is the oldest fossil of a horned reptile to be unearthed anywhere on earth, revealing that they existed a 100 million years prior to dinosaurs. The fossil has been named Shringasaurus Indica – a reference to its horns and site of discovery. The study was done by Saswati Bandopadhyay – paleontologist and a professor at ISI – and the team she heads. The researchers published recently their findings in the in Scientific Reports - a journal of the Nature group. Saradee Sengupta, a former ISI research fellow and presently a teacher at Durgapur Government College, West Bengal, and Martin D. Ezcura of Argentine co-authored the paper along with Saswati Bandyopadhay.
The Shringasaurus shows that the species acquired an anatomical diversity earlier than that of dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period. According to Professor Bandyopadhay, ‘Shringasaurus is unique as this is the only Triassic archosaruromorph with a pair of horns on its skull and rare animal from the Middle Triassic age and has been found only in India.’
This group of animal included herbivorous, large quadrupled predators, their flying forms and marine long-necked species. Up to 95 per cent of the species became extinct after the Permo-Triassic extinction and a similar biodiversity loss occurred in the terrestrial realm. Subsequent biotic recovery profoundly reshaped our ecosystems including the origin and early diversification of modern plants and animals.
