Right to Privacy in an era of social media

The recent outrage over the unauthorized video of cricketing superstar Virat Kohli’s hotel room in Perth including glimpses of his private spaces and objects is best viewed through an understanding of the changed landscape of the “private” and the “public” in our times. It is a topography shaped through our engagements with social media of different kinds.

What does the Constitution say?

Fundamental right under Article.21: Article 21 is also known as the heart of the constitution; this right is granted to citizens of India as well as the non-citizens. This fundamental right not only talks about life and liberty but it also covers wide variety of rights.

Interpretation of Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and Anr (1978): The interpretation of the term Personal Liberty has been discussed in many cases and finally had a wider interpretation in the case of Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India and Anr (1978) here the Delhi Regional officer ordered the petitioner Maneka Gandhi to surrender her passport within 7 days without giving her proper reason for the same.

Supreme court on Personal liberty: The Supreme Court held that ‘Personal Liberty’ covered variety of rights and that such right could only be taken away according to the procedure established by law which had to be just, fair and reasonable and not arbitrary in nature. Personal liberty means various rights that provide for personal liberty of a person.

Right to privacy: In Article 21 the term Right to Life includes right to participate in activities, right to tradition, heritage, culture, livelihood and so on. One of the most important right to live also includes Right to Privacy. Each and every human being would want some privacy in their life. No one would want others to intrude in their private space and disturb the happiness and peace.

What is the Fight for right to Privacy?

Not in the original constitution: This right of privacy was not granted to the citizens for a long time and there had been a lot of debate going on about the same, there is no explicit provision in the constitution which emphasizes about the right to privacy.

Data is fundamental to the privacy: Even the data we save in our mobile phones and laptops are also our private data which needs to be protected, if the data is stolen our right to privacy is lost and fundamental right is infringed. Unprotected data causes a disturbance in the right to privacy.

Some of the Important cases related to right to privacy

Kharak Singh V. The State of U.P.(1962): The discussion about the right to privacy first came up in the case of Kharak Singh V. The State of U.P.(1962) Kharak Singh’s house was visited by the police at strange hours, frequently waking him up from his sleep, it was held by the court that this infringed his ‘right to life’ but however court dismissed the petitioner’s allegation that the shadowing of chronic criminals infringed on his right to privacy as at that time the right to privacy was not recognised as the Fundamental Right.

Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu (1994): With the case of R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu (1994) where this case prepared the way for subsequent decisions on the Right to Privacy, paving the way for it to be included in the Fundamental Rights given under Part III of the Constitution.

X v. Hospital Z case (1998): There are reasonable restrictions for this right about which it was held by the Supreme Court in the case of Mr. X v. Hospital Z (1998) here the appellant Mr. X was tested positive for HIV about which the doctors informed someone else without his consent because of which marriage of Mr. X was called off, the appellant approached the court stating that his right to privacy was violated. The court here held that this fact has to been known to the person whom he marries as this fact would affect her life as well as it being a communicable disease and that there is no violation to the ‘Right of Privacy’ of Mr. X.

World Network of biosphere reserves: A backbone of biodiversity conservation

November 3 will be the first ‘The International Day for Biosphere Reserves’, to be celebrated beginning 2022. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) was formed in 1971, as a backbone for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, and living in harmony with nature.

What is biosphere reserve?

Protected area: A biosphere reserve is an area of land or water that is protected by law in order to support the conservation of ecosystems, as well as the sustainability of mankind’s impact on the environment.

Serves as a Platform to study:  They are places that provide local solutions to global challenges. Biosphere reserves include terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each site promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.

Learning places for sustainable development: Biosphere reserves are ‘learning places for sustainable development’. They are sites for testing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and ecological systems, including conflict prevention and management of biodiversity.

Biodiversity conservation programs are carried out: To carry out the complementary activities of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, biosphere reserves are traditionally organized into 3 interrelated zones, known as: the core area, the buffer zone, and a transition zone or ‘area of cooperation.

The core purpose: The purpose of the formation of the biosphere reserve is to conserve in situ all forms of life, along with its support system, in its totality, so that it could serve as a referral system for monitoring and evaluating changes in natural ecosystems. Each reserve aims to help scientists and the environmental community figure out how to protect the world’s plant and animal species while dealing with a growing population and its resource needs.

What is the process of recognition as Biosphere reserve?

All biosphere reserves are internationally recognized sites on land, at the coast, or in the oceans.

Governments alone decide which areas to nominate. Before approval by UNESCO, the sites are externally examined.

If approved, they will be managed based on a plan, reinforced by credibility checks while remaining under the sovereignty of their national government.

Current status of Biosphere reserves

Worldwide: There are 738 biosphere reserves in 134 countries, including 22 transboundary sites.

In India:

Presently, there are 18 notified biosphere reserves in India. Ten out of the eighteen biosphere reserves are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme list.

In India, the first biosphere reserve was designated by UNESCO in 2000, namely, the blue mountains of the Nilgiris stretching over Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

What is World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR)?

Dynamic network of cooperation: The WNBR, an amazing network of sites of excellence, is a unique tool for cooperation through sharing knowledge, exchanging experiences, building capacity and promoting best practices.

Fosters harmonious integration of people and nature: Its members are always ready to support each other.  It fosters the harmonious integration of people and nature for sustainable development through participatory dialogue; knowledge sharing; poverty reduction and human well-being improvements; respect for cultural values and society’s ability to cope with change – thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A tool to develop sustainable approach: The Network is one of the main international tools to develop and implement sustainable development approaches in a wide array of contexts

The principle of Living with harmony: The best concept for ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’ that exists in the United Nations system, is the WNBR, making these places more important today than ever before, where humans are thriving and relearning how to live with nature.

Coronal Holes

Recently, NASA tweeted an image of the sun seemingly ‘smiling’. NASA explained that the patches are called coronal holes, which can be seen in ultraviolet light but are typically invisible to our eyes.

What are Coronal Holes?

Coronal holes are regions on the sun’s surface from where fast solar wind gushes out into space.

Because they contain little solar material, they have lower temperatures and thus appear much darker than their surroundings.

Here, the magnetic field is open to interplanetary space, sending solar material out in a high-speed stream of solar wind.

They can last between a few weeks to months.

The holes are not a unique phenomenon, appearing throughout the sun’s approximately 11-year solar cycle.

They can last much longer during solar minimum – a period of time when activity on the Sun is substantially diminished.

How are they formed?

It is unclear what causes coronal holes.

They correlate to areas on the sun where magnetic fields soar up and away, without looping back down to the surface as they do elsewhere.

What do they tell us?

These ‘coronal holes’ are important to understanding the space environment around the earth through which our technology and astronauts travel.

In 2016 coronal holes covering “six-eight per cent of the total solar surface” were spotted.

Scientists study these fast solar wind streams because they sometimes interact with earth’s magnetic field, creating what’s called a geomagnetic storm.

These storms can expose satellites to radiation and interfere with communications signals.

Pahari Ethnic Community added to STs List of J&K

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has now cleared the way for the inclusion of the ‘Pahari ethnic group’ on the Scheduled Tribes list of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Who are the Scheduled Tribes?

The term ‘Scheduled Tribes’ first appeared in the Constitution of India.

Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.

Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.

Among the tribal groups, several have adapted to modern life but there are tribal groups who are more vulnerable.

The Dhebar Commission (1973) created a separate category “Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs)” which was renamed in 2006 as “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)”.

How are STs notified?

The first specification of Scheduled Tribes in relation to a particular State/ Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation with the State governments concerned.

These orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.

Status of STs in India

The Census 2011 has revealed that there are said to be 705 ethnic groups notified as Scheduled Tribes (STs).

Over 10 crore Indians are notified as STs, of which 1.04 crore live in urban areas.

The STs constitute 8.6% of the population and 11.3% of the rural population.

Who are the Paharis referred to in this article?

The proposal called for the inclusion of the “Paddari tribe”, “Koli” and “Gadda Brahman” communities to be included on the ST list of J&K.

The suggestion for the inclusion had come from the commission set up for socially and educationally backward classes in the UT.

The J&K delimitation commission has reserved six of the nine Assembly segments in the Pir Panjal Valley for STs.