Abstract
State surveillance is key to preserving and protecting the state’s interests. Governments all over the world are well within their rights to conduct surveillance operations under the grounds such as national security and maintaining law and order. Concomitantly, the state is essentially restricting citizens’ privacy rights and civil liberties in doing so. This creates an apparent conflict between legitimate state aims such as security, which furthers state actions such as surveillance, and the fundamental rights of its people. This overlap of the state’s imperative and constitutionally protected rights cannot be alleviated by repudiating one or the other. This paper analyses the existing legal framework with respect to state surveillance in India. The paper then looks into the incorporation of AI technology into the existing surveillance apparatus. The paper examines, in depth, the nuances of proportionality principles and, in the later sections, discusses the possibility of codification of the principle, making it a legislative mandate rather than an afterthought to state actions. Further, the paper points out the lack of procedural and technical safeguards to protect the rights of citizens and suggests practical safeguards. Additionally, the paper analyses the methods in which such safeguards can be made effective against AI-enhanced surveillance mechanisms that are operating in real time.
