Constitutionalizing Digital Silence: Mental Health, Human Dignity, And Personal Autonomy In The Shadow Of Article 21
- IJLLR Journal
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
Dr. Tapan Kumar Chandola, Professor & Director, Amity Law School, Amity University, Lucknow, India
Anubhuti Yadav, LL.M. Student, Amity Law School, Amity University, Lucknow, India
ABSTRACT
The digital uprising has inaudibly done something that centuries of authoritarian governance could never quite manage: it has occupied the last remaining quiet spaces of the human mind. Notifications do not knock before they enter. Algorithms do not ask for consent before influencing moods. Employers do not pause before the clock strikes twelve midnight to send that urgent message. Against this backdrop, this paper scans the constitutional architecture existing under Article 21 of the Constitution of India to protect what this paper terms as digital silence i.e. the right of every individual to periods of unaffected psychological rest, freedom from forced digital engagement, and control over the most delicate frontier of their private self: their mental health.
Drawing on the momentous judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) And Anr. v. Union of India And Ors. (2017), the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in Sukdeb Saha v. State of Andhra Pradesh clearly constitutionalizing mental health, and the proposed Right to Disconnect Bill, 2025, this paper argues that the right to digital silence is not a luxury of the advantaged but a constitutional necessity for all. The paper touches the growth of Article 21 from a bare protection against illogical withdrawal of life and liberty to a rich, functional assurance of dignity, autonomy, and psychological integrity.
The paper further critiques the execution gaps in existing frameworks, evaluates comparative models and suggests a path forward for India to constitutionalize the right to be left alone: digitally, psychologically, and constitutionally.
Keywords: Digital uprising, Digital silence, Mental health, Psychological rest, Dignity, Personal autonomy, Integrity, Right to Disconnect, Right to be left alone, Private self.
