Right To Privacy: A Need of the Hour

The right to privacy, over the years, has evolved into an essential fundamental right in modern India with its constitutional status accorded by the landmark 2017 judgment of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India. However, it is facing unparalleled threats emanating from digital surveillance, data breaches, and an unprecedented expansion of state powers. This paper conducts a doctrinal analysis of constitutional provisions, statutes such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), and jurisprudence post-Puttaswamy, along with comparative insights from global frameworks such as the EU's GDPR, to assess the urgency of robust privacy protections. Key results highlighted the progress of the DPDP Act and its 2025 Rules in moving the law forward, but they also showed important gaps: government exclusions, surveillance overreach through old interception rules, and RTI-DPDP conflicts that hurt press freedom and openness. The report concluded that proportionality tests by courts, improvement in DPDP Rules ensuring accountability, and conformity to international standards are needed to protect dignity in the digital era.