Evolution of Privacy Jurisprudence in the Supreme Court of India: Evaluating the Impact of Puttaswamy

Authors

• Vrinda Bhandari, .
• Rishab Bailey

Abstract

This paper studies the Supreme Court’s landmark privacy judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India and, through an empirical analysis of 53 judgments, analyses the record of the Supreme Court in applying, rather than simply citing, the judgment in decisions from 2017 to early 2023. Puttaswamy is widely seen as a transformative decision, as it recognised privacy as a fundamental right and tied it to dignity, autonomy, bodily integrity, consent, and choice. Yet it did not arise from a lis involving a concrete factual dispute over the application of privacy rights. The Court was therefore not dealing with a specific factual matrix, and many questions about the content and limits of privacy were left to be decided by later benches. This paper therefore turns from the promise of Puttaswamy to its actual use in the Supreme Court of India. Based on an empirical review of Supreme Court judgments available on SCC Online, the paper maps the main areas in which privacy claims arose after Puttaswamy and studies what difference the judgment made in practice. These include cases concerning (i) interpersonal relationships, (ii) actions by or against the State, (iii) the intersection between the right to privacy and the right to information, (iv) the application of proportionality and judicial review, and (v) the interpretation of the Constitution. The paper argues that while Puttaswamy opened up important constitutional possibilities, its promise has been realised unevenly. Its influence has been significant in some areas, limited in others, and still uncertain in many. The paper thus offers an account of what Puttaswamy has changed, and what remains unsettled in Indian constitutional law.

Recommended Citation

Bhandari, Vrinda and Bailey, Rishab (2025) "Evolution of Privacy Jurisprudence in the Supreme Court of India: Evaluating the Impact of Puttaswamy," National Law School of India Review: Vol. 36: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsir/vol36/iss2/7