Plodded Privacy Law and Nebulous Surveillance

Abstract

This paper explores the complex and evolving relationship between the right to privacy and the expanding mechanisms of state and non-state surveillance in India. It begins by establishing privacy as an essential facet of human dignity, autonomy, and liberty, while acknowledging that its scope has remained conceptually fluid. Despite the Constituent Assembly’s refusal to incorporate explicit protections against unreasonable search and seizure, Indian courts gradually developed privacy jurisprudence, moving from early reluctance in M.P. Sharma and Kharak Singh to the transformative recognition of privacy as a fundamental right in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017). The paper examines how surveillance has been justified in India through legislative frameworks such as the Telegraph Act, Information Technology Act, and Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which grant wide powers with minimal oversight. Through case law analysis, it highlights judicial attempts to balance privacy with legitimate state interests like security, crime control, and public order. It further evaluates emerging forms of surveillance—public, media, and digital—driven by technologies such as AI, data profiling, CCTVs, and spyware, which increasingly blur boundaries between state and private monitoring. The paper concludes that surveillance is inevitable but must be restrained by legality, proportionality, and procedural safeguards to prevent excessive intrusion into constitutionally protected privacy.