Celebrity right infringement: a question
“Privacy is an inherent human right and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.”
~Bruce Schneier
Contents
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Introduction
The right to privacy is interpreted from Article 21 of The Indian Constitution-Right to life and personal liberty. Right to life does not only include basic needs but also includes life with dignity, safety, and a healthy environment. This article would be talking about the current issue of the right to privacy of Virat Kohli.
This article will also answer questions like-who is a celebrity? What is the right to privacy? Should celebrities be given their right to privacy? Importance of the right to privacy? Should India adopt global celebrity privacy laws?
Celebrity
Celebrity is a person who is a well-known person. Celebrity can be defined as – “a person who many people talk about or know about”. [1]
The interest of celebrities can be protected under copyright law and trademark law.
Celebrities can include famous athletes, singers, dancers, sports persons, actors, actresses, and more.
Privacy & right to privacy
Privacy means “The condition or state of being free from public attention to intrusion inter or interference with one’s acts or decisions.” [2]
Invasion of privacy means “An unjustified exploitation of one’s personality and intrusion into one’s personal activities.” privacy is also considered as a synonym to “right to be alone.” [2]
The right to privacy as recognized by the constitution, allows individuals to give their consent for use of any of their information relating to the individual and their life details, which is not on public record.[3]
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that, protection of life and personal liberty. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law.[4]
According to the court, in any case, no person can strip off an individual’s right to life and personal liberty. This cannot be even suspended even during the time of an emergency.
The historical origin of the right to privacy
The right to privacy is interpreted from “right to life and personal liberty-article 21”
The formal proceedings of the constituent assembly started with the drafting in December 1946 and the constituent assembly constituted various committees whose main work was to provide reports to the drafting committee, which would in turn formulate a draft of the constitution.
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar’s draft advocated for what was called ‘the right of the people to be secure in their persons, house, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be validated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.[5]
From the very beginning, there were strong differences of opinion related to the right to privacy, members like B.N.Rau, A.K Ayyar, and M.K.panikkar had a strong objection to the right to privacy to be upraised to the status of Fundamental Rights. A.K.Ayyar was of the opinion that granting the right to privacy and secrecy in correspondence would be disastrous.
This would adversely affect civil litigation where documents form an essential part of the evidence and B.N.Rau was primarily concerned with the interference of the right to privacy with the investigative powers of the police authorities.
Later both Rau and Ayyar were successful in persuading the advisory committee to leave out provisions relating to the right to privacy and so, the final report of the advisory committee did not feature anything related to the right to privacy. But over a period of time, none other than the Supreme Court of India has played an important role to address a number of cases that have dealt with the right to privacy in some form or the other.[5]
M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra, 1954 AIR 300,
Kharak Singh v. The State of U.P, 1963 AIR 1295,
Govind v. State of M.P, 1975 AIR 1378,
ADM Jabalpur v. Shivakant Shukla, 1976 AIR 1207,
People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 568,
Unique Identification Authority of India & Anr. v. Central Bureau of Investigation, Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl) No(s).2524/2014,
Judicial pronouncements (national & international)
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.27 The verdict was the outcome of a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Indian biometric identity scheme Aadhaar. This was a case relating to the unique identity scheme that was discussed along with the right to privacy. The question that was placed before the court was whether a right like the right to privacy was guaranteed under the constitution or not.
Eventually, the court decided that the question related to the right to privacy should be left to be discussed on a larger constitutional basis because all those judgments that denied the existence of the right to privacy were declared by the larger benches than the cases where the right to privacy was accepted as a fundamental right. Due to this, an unresolved controversy emerged that compelled the court to refer this issue to a larger bench so that it could be settled.
The unanimous judgment by the Supreme Court of India (SCI) in Justice K.S.Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs. Union of India is a resounding victory for privacy. The judgment’s ringing endorsement of the right to privacy as a fundamental right mark a watershed moment in the constitutional history of India. Finally, it was on 24th August 2017, that a historical judgment was made by the Supreme Court of India that stated the right to privacy is a part of Fundamental rights that was protected by the Indian constitution.
The Supreme Court of India declared that the right to privacy stems from the fundamental right to life and liberty and that it would be having a long-lasting consequence. The Nine-Judge bench of the Supreme Court was involved in the case of Puttaswamy vs. Union of India which declared the right to privacy to be protected under part 3 of the Constitution of India.[5]
United states have anti-paparazzi law, after Princess Diana died, which was assumed to be caused by seven paparazzi but later on the judge clarified that it was the drunk driver due to whom the incident took place. The California government assumed the danger brought by the paparazzi and subsequently, punishments and monetary fines were decided. Similar kinds of laws are also practiced in Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and New Zealand.
Importance of the right to privacy
“Right to privacy is really important. You pull that brick out and another and pretty soon the house falls.”
~Tim cook
The right to privacy is important to maintain human balance.
It’s very much accepted that humans are social animals, but at the same time, they do not always like to be judged or noticed or have a burden of being observed, and at times also leads to unstable mental health problems.
Recent happenings
“I understand that fans get very happy and excited seeing their favorite players and get excited to meet them and I’ve always appreciated that. But this video here is appalling and it’s made me feel very paranoid about my privacy. If I cannot have privacy in my own hotel room, then where can I really expect any personal space at all??
I’m NOT okay with this kind of fanaticism and absolute invasion of privacy. Please respect people’s privacy and not treat them as a commodity for entertainment.”[6]said Virat Kohli, a famous Indian cricketer while posting the video on Instagram.
Analysis
It’s very much obvious that everyone loves to be loved, receiving positive feedback, people following you, and more. Celebrity being in public domain is noticed by the public at large. And I feel noticing isn’t an infringement of the right to privacy. But if the celebrity does not want to disclose his personal beliefs, behavior, and choice, then publishing that against his will would certainly lead to infringement of his right to privacy for sure.
Such a video is a brutal attack, wherein without his will, an individual gets into his personal space and publishes without even considering his privacy. Celebrities are also human beings. Just because they have got fame, it does not means they have to sacrifice their privacy. Even that individual has the same rights, as the other individual does. Privacy to a certain level can be sacrificed, but entering the bedroom and shooting and publishing is a limit cross for sure.
Conclusion
Due to easily accessible technology nowadays, it gets more important to have laws and regulations for the same. In 2020, there were around 748 million smartphone users estimated. So, because of the available resources, there is a probability that it might get misused in ways infringing on someone’s right to privacy, trolling, rumors, and many more undesirable activities are assumed to be misused.
I feel that its the high time now, that India should have a law regulating the issues faced by celebrities like trolling, the right to privacy, and many more aspects that should be specifically looked upon. I feel that laws like the UK, US, etc., countries should also be implied in India to regulate this sector. Moreover, everyone should respect the privacy of each other with mutual understanding and give everyone their own personal space.
This article has been authored by Khyati Patel, a student at Nirma University.
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