Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{200273,
        author = {Adv. Sayali padmakar Dangare and Dr. Avani Mistry},
        title = {Right to Privacy vs State Surveillance in the Digital Age: A Constitutional Analysis of India},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {12},
        pages = {3995-3998},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=200273},
        abstract = {The emergence of pervasive digital surveillance infrastructure has placed the constitutional right to privacy in direct and sustained tension with state security imperatives in India. This article examines that tension through a constitutional lens, tracing the doctrinal evolution of privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India from Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1963) to the landmark nine-judge bench decision in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017). Against this doctrinal backdrop, the article critically evaluates the surveillance powers conferred by the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, applying the tripartite constitutional tests of legality, necessity, and proportionality. It argues that existing surveillance legislation fails these tests by conferring overbroad executive discretion without meaningful judicial or parliamentary oversight. The article further identifies structural challenges posed by artificial intelligence-driven surveillance, facial recognition technologies, and the nascent data-protection regime under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. It concludes with targeted reform recommendations, including an independent surveillance oversight authority, sunset-clause legislation, and the operationalisation of a robust data-protection framework.},
        keywords = {Privacy; Surveillance; Article 21; Constitution of India; Data Protection; Proportionality},
        month = {May},
        }