"Today Google Knows More About You Than Your Spouse-" Justice V Ramasubramanian On 'Right To Privacy: New Age Challenges'

[Here is the full text of 4th Justice V R Krishna Iyer Memorial Lecture delivered by Justice V Ramasubramanian, Judge, Supreme Court of India]It is indeed a privilege to be invited deliver a Memorial Lecture instituted in the name of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, an icon of the robed brethren and a saviour of the robbed classes. The greatness of Justice Krishna Iyer is that even in capturing his multifaceted personality, we are short of words and we look upto him to provide the appropriate vocabulary. Of his contribution and personality, he himself said as follows: "My life has had an arboreal feature, a variegated vicissitudes-now a moffusal lawyer, sometime in jail, then a creative talent with multiple portfolios as successful minister, back to the High Court bar, off to the Bench, flight to Delhi as member Law Commission. Then came the 'brotherhood' stage in the Supreme Court with innovative curial experiments, with truth and justice playing truant and judicial efforts to democratize remedies, working restlessly for making law, people and justice synthesize….. And law of all- the scene of life is near sunset, yet yarning and so long as the candle lasts, burning, for public causes. This twilight, yet bright, span is dedicated for campaigns, and claims every hour, every day. Some brethren making busy money or ambitiously chasing post-retiral offices, may scorn at me for a tireless tongue and fearless pen. True, it is all "words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart". My waning life is but a struggle for "lost causes,(Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Fifth Memorial Law Lecture, Kochi, December 14, 2019) forsaken beliefs, unpopular names and impossible loyalties". Fail, I may, but fight I must, since I am a human being and everything that affects any human anywhere is never alien to me." Therefore, I thank the trustees of Sarada Krishna Satgamaya Foundation for Law and Justice to have given me this honour and privilege. As Soli Sorabjee said, Justice Krishna Iyer's most signal contribution to the development of constitutional law is his creative, expansive and humanistic interpretation of Article 21. This singular aspect of his judicial career', according to Soli Sorabjee, justly entitles him to a rank among the great, and a permanent place in the hearts and minds of the needy and the neglected, the destitute and the despised, the poor and the suffering – in fact the people of India. Therefore, it is befitting that the topic for the lecture revolves around a right which is now recognised as part and parcel of the right guarenteed under Article 21. I would divide my lecture into 3 parts, the first providing a glimpse of the development of the law of the right to privacy in India, the second dealing with the history of its development in the west and the third, on the impact of science and technology on this right to privacy. I. DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW IN INDIA Indian courts started off with a negative note as can be seen from the earliest decision of the Supreme court in M.P. Sharma vs. Satish Chandra (AIR 1954 SC 300), where the Supreme Court held that there is no justification to import the right to privacy into our Constitution by a process of strained construction, analogous to American Fourth Amendment. But in the year 1963, the right to privacy was recognised as part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, in the minority view expressed by Justice Subba Rao in Kharak Singh vs. State of U.P. (AIR 1963 SC 1295). In that case a person was charged in a case of dacoity but was later released for lack of evidence. However a 'history sheet' was opened under U.P. Police Regulations, and he was put under surveillance. He was required to make frequent visits to the police station and sometimes police visited his house as part of domiciliary visits at night. They would knock at the door, wake him from sleep, and he was made to report to the police whenever he went out of his village. Though the majority view held the domiciliary visits to be bad, surveillance was not held unlawful. But Justice Subba Rao, in his minority view held that the concept of liberty in Article-21 was comprehensive enough to include privacy and that a person's house, where he lives with his family, is his "castle" and that nothing is more deleterious to a man's physical happiness and health than a calculated interference with his privacy. Justice Subba Rao opined that every democratic country sanctifies domestic life; it is expected to give him rest, physical happiness, peace of mind and security. Therefore, all acts of surveillance according to him would infringe Article 21. The following extract from the minority view expressed by Justice Subba Rao and Justice Shah in the said judgment, laid the foundation for the development of the Law relating to the right to privacy:- "The...

"Today Google Knows More About You Than Your Spouse-" Justice V Ramasubramanian On 'Right To Privacy: New Age Challenges'

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"Today Google Knows More About You Than Your Spouse-" Justice V Ramasubramanian On 'Right To Privacy: New Age Challenges'

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