RIGHTS

RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY:
The Indian constitution provides for a set of rights which are considered to be crucial for individuals to live their lives without undue interference from the state. These are known as fundamental rights and they are enshrined in the constitution and if any of these rights are violated then the person aggrieved can file a writ petition in the High court or the Supreme Court against the authority violating his or her fundamental rights. Once a writ petition is filed then the court can order the stopping of any act that is infringing your right to privacy. With a few exceptions, the fundamental rights of an individual are limitations on the State action. They are not meant to protect persons against the conduct of private persons. Private actions have to be taken care of by the ordinary law of the land. This stems from a reading Article 12 of the Constitution of India which states that for the purpose of fundamental rights, "the State includes the Government and Parliament of India and the government and legislature of each of the States and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India". Therefore, any remedy against any fundamental right violation is only enforceable against State. It is to be noted that the term state has been expanded by the judiciary to include a number of non governmental organization and institutions such as private companies, academic institutions etc., which are totally autonomous from government departments.

Right to Privacy
The Constitution of India does not patently grant a fundamental right to privacy but the right has been read into other fundamental rights such as the right to life and personal liberty by the Supreme Court. The Supreme court has also read the right to privacy into the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution. The right to privacy exists as a second level right, which is not expressly articulated in the Constitution, but has been read into it. The Supreme Court of India has held that freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) means the right to express one's convictions and opinions freely by word of mouth, writing, printing, or in any other manner. It held in the case of PUCL v. Union of India (1997) 1 SCC 301, that if any person is speaking on the telephone, he is exercising his or her right to freedom of speech and expression and any tapping of the phone will be a violation of this freedom This right would therefore extend to all forms of communication and if the state exercises any undue interference with an individual's right to communicate through such medium then it would be a violation of the person's fundamental right to privacy. However it is to be noted that even fundamental rights are subject to some reasonable restrictions by the state. For example the right to freedom of speech and expression does not mean that a person can propagate any hate speech or seditious statements etc.

The right to freedom of speech and expression is subject to reasonable restrictions on grounds of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation, incitement to an offence. The freedom of speech and expression is not a sacrosanct or absolute right, which is not subject to restrictions. Similarly if the right to privacy in terms of any communications that a person has with anybody else, is part of the freedom of speech and expression of the person, then naturally it is subject to the same restrictions as well. Right to privacy is not an absolute right, and is subject to many other criteria, which include public order and health. This in turn makes it difficult to ensure that every person has the right to keep her or his HIV status confidential between the person and doctor, or NGO, and private. Article 21: Right to life and personal liberty:

Protection under Article 21: Right to life and personal liberty
Many unenumerated rights are read into Article 21 of the Constitution by judgments of the Supreme Court. Article 21 is the right to life and personal liberty. Some of the other rights read into this right (Article 21) are the following (in chronological order)

• Right to go abroad.
• Right to privacy (Gobind v. State of M.P.(1975) SCC 148) In this case reliance was placed on the American decision
  in Griswold v. Connecticut.(381 US 479, 510 : 14 L Ed 2d 511 (1965)
• Right against solitary confinement
• Right against bar fetters
• Right to legal aid.
• Right to speedy trail
• Right against handcuffing
• Right against delayed execution
• Right against custodial violence
• Right against public hanging
• Right to Doctor's assistance (Paramanand Katra v. Union of India. (1989) 4 SCC 286)
• Right to Shelter

As seen the right to privacy has been read into the right to life and personal liberty of a person. These rights have arisen in the context of certain case law. While most of the cases deal with the interference by agents of the state such as the police in the lives of individuals, the right once articulated by the state acts as a general principle of law which could be used in different fact situations such as the violation of an individual's right to privacy. The major advantage of the right being recognized as a fundamental right is the fact that there can be speedy remedies granted unlike a civil right which requires the court to follow its own process which is both time consuming and expensive. The important cases where the right to privacy has been interpreted by the Supreme court are as follows:

• Kharak Singh v. State of UP AIR 1963 SC 1295
• Gobind v. State of MP (1975) 2 SCC 148 br The Auto Shankar case: R. Gopal v. State of Tamil Nadu 1994-(006)-SCC -0632 -SC
• PUCL v. Union of India: Telephone tapping (1997) 1 SCC 301
• The AIDS case: Mr. X v. Z hospital AIR 1998 SCW 3662