Balancing Fundamental Rights And National Security: A Constitutional Analysis
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 22
- 1 min read
Dr. Rajeev Singh, Assistant Professor, Amity Law School
Sakshi Singh, LLB, Amity Law School
ABSTRACT
The protection of national security that is accompanied by constitutional rights protection is one of the main problems of democratic societies. Freedom of speech, personal liberty and privacy are some of the fundamental rights codified in the Constitution of India. However, these rights will be reasonable limited to the interests of sovereignty, integrity, security of the State and well-being of the people. The current article criticises the legal and constitutional construct that balances the individual freedoms and the national security. It compares past and present jurisprudence- both colonial preventive detention laws and landmark cases as in the case of Maneka Gandhi and cases that have been before the People’s Union of Civil Liberties and Puttaswamy, Shreya Singhal and Anuradha Bhasin and contrasts the same with extraterritorial experiences, especially with the U.S. PATRIOT Act and European data-retention cases. The study indicates that the scope of the individual rights has undergone a continuous increase in that courts have demanded that the restrictions be not only fair and just but also reasonable and have utilised proportionality tests. However, there are new pressures in the form of digital spying, pre-emptive detention and internet disconnections which highlights the ongoing frictions. National-security practises should be clear to maintain legitimacy and ensure judicial checking and balancing them and good procedural protection.
Keywords: Fundamental rights; national security; preventive detention; privacy; proportionality; constitutional law; India.
