Police Surveillance Technologies And Privacy Protection In India: A Constitutional And Institutional Analysis Of Facial Recognition Systems Post-Puttaswamy Judgement
- IJLLR Journal
- 7 days ago
- 1 min read
Prananjeya B Gujjala, LLM (Criminal and Security Laws), Symbiosis Law School, Pune
ABSTRACT
Surveillance technologies have been gradually integrated into India policing that have radically changed the connection between the State and the individual. Facial recognition systems are one of the invasive types of surveillance among them, and they allow biometric identification at the population level and on a continual basis. This paper discusses the constitutional and institutional outlooks of the National Automated Facial Recognition System (NAFRS), which is a centralized facial recognition system used by law enforcement agencies in India.
Locating NAFRS in the aftermath of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.). v. Union of India, the paper relies on the proportionality test of legality, necessity and proportionality to determine whether the system is compliant with Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It concludes that NAFRS is not legally authorized, has no significant protection, and minimal supervision, making it a unconstitutional grey zone. The paper additionally reveals that the claims of necessity lack empirical evidence and that the magnitude and structure of facial recognition policing leads to imbalanced invasion in privacy and equality, especially since risks of algorithmic bias is recorded.
Besides the analysis of the doctrine, the paper points to structural deficits in police accountability and institutional capacity, which intensify the uncontrolled risks of surveillance. Based on comparative regulation strategies of the other constitutional democracies, the paper will end by either promoting a temporary police use of facial recognition moratorium or the passage of a rights-based legislative framework to guarantee constitutional adherence.
