Need for a comprehensive legislation on Right to Privacy
Dr. sandeep Kulshrestha
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Abstract
Right to privacy has been considered as a fundamental right under the garb of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. India has also enacted the Right to Information Act to ensure the delivery of information of public affairs. It is also evident that Media often interfere in the privacy of individuals in order to gather the news. Privacy of an individual is on stake. Present Paper analyses the concept of privacy in present digital age, where privacy can be invade in many ways. Privacy is protected by Information Technology Act in Cyber world, but invasion by media in life of an individual is more or less governed by the morality. In this situation researcher tried to analyse the need of a comprehensive legislation on Right to privacy in India Last year Ratan Tata1 filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court of India alleging that the unauthorised publication of his private conversations with Nira Radia2 was in violation of his right to privacy. The writ, filed by the industrialist, did not challenge the action of the Directorate-General of Income Tax to record the private conversations for the purpose of investigations. Instead, it was challenging the publication of the private conversations that took place between the industrialist and Nira Radia by the media. Whether the publication of those private conversations was in the interest of the public has been widely debated. What the Tata episode brought into focus was the need for a law protecting the right to privacy in India. Right to Privacy, though is an important right but unfortunately could not take place in the statutes, though the court through judicial pronouncement placed it as an important right. Right to privacy found place in the Universal declaration of human rights. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) refers to privacy and it states: 1 Head of Tata Groups of Companies 2 The Radia Tapes' controversy concerns recording of conversations between the lobbyist Nira Radia and politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and journalists with respect to the 2G spectrum scam. The tapes were recorded by the Income Tax Department. The role played by the media, especially some prominent journalists, in scam has been questioned. A handful of magazines and newspapers have questioned the media ethics employed by these journalists, whose recorded conversations are in the public domain or have been published by a few political magazines. The publication of the recorded conversations by a few media publications has received a sharp reaction from the said journalists. They have accused those media journals of unverified reporting and conducting a smear campaign against them.
Key takeaways
- However, in the case of a matter being part of public records, including court records, the right of privacy cannot be claimed.
- It remarked that whereas public persons are entitled to privacy like private persons, the privacy afforded to private individuals is greater than that afforded to those in public authority, especially in certain circumstances.
- The right of the suspect or the accused to privacy is recognised by the PCI to guard against the trial by media.
- The Code of Ethics provides guiding principles relating to privacy and sting operations that broadcasters should follow.
- In this situation to clarify the ambit and scope of the Right to Privacy and streamline the privacy issue a comprehensive legislation covering all these aspect keeping in mind the law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in required, so the right to privacy may be considered as positive right rather than the negative.
