THE EVOLVING ROLE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA AS A WATCHDOG OF DIGITAL PRIVACY: A DOCTRINAL AND POLICY REVIEW

ABSTRACT Technological innovations have grown significantly in the short term changing the relationships between the State and individuals, the topic of privacy, surveillance, and the web of digital governance is becoming more and more controversial. In India, the issues gained constitutional importance when the Supreme Court gave the concept of right to privacy a constitutional status as a fundamental right in Article 21 of the Constitution in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.). v. Union of India. The ruling was a monumental change in the Indian constitutional jurisprudence and made the autonomy of individuals, their dignity, and self-determination of information the key driver in the discussion of digital governance. The research paper is a policy and doctrinal study of how the Supreme Court of India has changed to become the champion and protector of digital privacy. It looks at the impacts of judicial interpretations on the privacy jurisprudence in relation to Aadhaar frameworks, state surveillance systems, and data governance systems as well as the growing use of governance technologies. The paper is a critical analysis of how the Court exercised proportionality and constitutional scrutiny in order to weigh the technological efficiency and national interests against the fundamental rights. Moreover, the paper examines the Supreme Court involvement of legislative events, especially the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. It evaluates whether judicial review has been sufficient to respond to the concerns of citizens with regard to the protection of information, informational autonomy as well as executive discretion without necessarily frustrating the ability of the State to govern effectively. This paper suggests that the Supreme Court has been central in bringing the issue of digital privacy to the constitutional status. It however argues that sustained court watchfulness and a refinement of its doctrine is imperative to accommodate changing surveillance habits and new challenges to the Indian data-driven governance environment. Keywords: Digital Privacy, Surveillance, Data Protection, The Supreme Court of India.