The CCG Privacy High Court Tracker is a resource consisting of decisions on the constitutional right to privacy passed by all High Courts in India. The Privacy High Court Tracker captures cases post the pronouncement of the Justice (Retd.) K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (Puttaswamy) judgment. In Puttaswamy, the Supreme Court of India reaffirmed the existence of the right to privacy in India’s Constitution as a fundamental right.
The Privacy High Court Tracker is a tool to enable lawyers, judges, policymakers, legislators, civil society organisations, academic and policy researchers and other relevant stakeholders, to engage with, understand and analyse the evolving privacy law and jurisprudence across India. The cases deal with the following aspects of privacy (1) autonomy, (2) bodily integrity, (3) data protection, (4) dignity, (5) informational privacy, (6) phone tapping, (7) press freedom, (8) right to know and access information, and (9) surveillance, search and seizure.
The tracker currently only consists of cases reported on Manupatra, and those reported upto 15 March 2024 (CCG will continue to update the tracker periodically). Only final judgements are included in the tracker, and not interim orders of the High Courts.
Show methodologySurveillance, Search and Seizure and Data Protection || Madhya Pradesh High Court (Gwalior Bench)
1 Judge
Decision Date - 21.09.2023
Citation - MISC. CRIMINAL CASE No. 24900 of 2023
Case Type - Miscallaneous Criminal Petition
Case Status - Petition Allowed and Disposed.
Legal Provisions - Sec. 61 to 69, 258, 309, 311 and 482 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.
View Case
"Every police station, specially Investigating Officers must create a “WhatsApp” Group of every crime number unfolding heinous offences consisting of Investigating Officer, Complainant/Informant, Court Munshi, concerned Court Clerk, Prosecution Officer at the initial stage. This can be the First Phase of membership of said WhatsApp Group which would be in respect of the crime number under which heinous offence is under investigation. Therefore, that crime number would be the name of the WhatsApp Group. Court Munshi or Investigating Officer as the case may be can act as Admn. (Administrator) of the said WhatsApp Group. This group would be created only for the purpose of the service of summons, any other information related to that particular case and to protect the complainant and witnesses from the wrath of mischievous accused persons. Information sent over the said group and privacy of the data would be maintained by all the members of the group."
Read moreCreation of WhatsApp groups by Police Stations may be undertaken to keep track of offenders may be created, by taking due consideration of the privacy of the members added to such groups.
Read moreMethodology
The Privacy High Court Tracker has been developed using judgements pulled from the Manupatra case law database. Through its search function, CCG identified cases that relied upon the Puttaswamy judgment and were pertaining to the right to privacy, and filtered them by each of the 25 High Courts in India. These were then further examined to identify those cases whose decisions concerned a core aspect of privacy. CCG identified the following aspects of privacy (1) autonomy, (2) bodily integrity, (3) data protection, (4) dignity, (5) informational privacy, (6) phone tapping, (7) press freedom, (8) right to know and access information, and (9) surveillance, search and seizure. Cases where only incidental or passing observations or references were made to Puttaswamy and the right to privacy were not included in the tracker. The selected cases were then compiled into the database per High Court, with several details highlighted for ease of reference. These details consist of case name, decision date, case citation and number, case status, legal provisions involved, and bench strength. The tracker also includes select quotes concerning the right to privacy from each case, to assist users to more easily and quickly grasp the crux of the case.
For ease of access to the text of the judgments, each case on our tracker is linked to the Indian Kanoon version of the judgment (wherever available) or an alternative open-access version of the judgment text.
We welcome your feedback. In addition, you may write to us at - ccg@nludelhi.ac.in with the details of any privacy case we may not have included from any High Court in India.
