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UPSC 2017 GS-II · 15 marks · 250 words

Examine the scope of Fundamental Rights in the light of the latest judgement of the Supreme Court on Right to Privacy.

What “Examine” demands

investigate the issue closely — how it arose, how it works, what it achieves and where it falls short — looking at both sides.

The characteristic failure: description of what the thing is, with no probing of how well it works.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

  • Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), nine judges, unanimous: privacy is intrinsic to Article 21 and runs through Part III
  • Overruled M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962); affirmed Gobind and R. Rajagopal
  • The proportionality test laid down: legality, legitimate state aim, proportionality, and procedural safeguards
  • Dimensions recognised: bodily autonomy, informational privacy, decisional autonomy — the basis for Navtej Johar (2018) and Joseph Shine (2018)
  • Consequences: the Aadhaar judgement (2018) reading down Section 57, the Srikrishna Committee, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023
  • Wider point: Fundamental Rights are not watertight compartments — the Cooper and Maneka Gandhi line of reasoning

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