The Supreme Court of India recognized in August, 24, 2017, that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed within article 21 of India's Constitution, that protects life and personal liberty. The judgment recognized that the right of privacy may also be recognized under the other fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution (part III, chapter on fundamental rights). The Indian constitution does not explicitly states a right to privacy in any other specific article.
The constitutional foundations of the right to privacy were recognized in the judgement of a number of complaints against the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), set up in 2009 to generate and assign unique 12 digit ID number to residents, named Aadhaar. The project eventually became mandatory and collected a broad range of personal information (including biometric data) from residents, leading to a large number of questions, petitions and court decisions.
The court considered different aspects of a right to privacy, including the idea of informational privacy and the vast possibilities of profiling and surveillance created by technology and the collection of data by governments or private parties.
Note: the recognition of the fundamental right to privacy in this decision is only part of the broader case against Aadhaar, that is yet to be fully heard and decided by the Court.
For more information and a full coverage of the judgement, check the series of posts by the Center for Communication Governance of the NLU Delhi here.