‘Puttaswamy’ and the fading promise of a right

August 24 has passed, marking five years since a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India delivered a crucial judgment in the case of Justice K.S. The judgment delivered on that date formally recognised the right to privacy as being a fundamental right stemming from the right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Other ‘transgressions’ The recent interventions by the Government which aim to restrict Indian nationals from subscribing to and accessing VPN services shows a similar disregard, too. While it need not even be said that VPN services in and of themselves do not enable or significantly further criminal activity in a way where such a response would be warranted, the Government’s position demonstrates that it is not above placing hindrances in an individual’s effort to exercise their fundamental right to privacy, of which informational privacy is a part. However, this should not be surprising given other privacy-infringing transgressions, and considering that the initial position, argued by the then Attorney General was that “the right of privacy may at best be a common law right, but not a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution”.