Would companies using advanced information technology have the same Constitutional obligations as the State?

Abstract

The idea of the state is a fascinating subject for a student of modern political and constitutional theory. After one has have looked past the platitudes, the nation-state and the constitution are institutional arrangements to share power within a geographical territory so as to prevent regions from sinking into anarchy and revolution. Modern liberal constitutions also contain a bill of rights which guarantees certain (mainly) civil and political rights to citizens like the right to life and personal liberty, right of free speech, right to equal treatment by state authorities, etc. However, constitutions are also documents which are, for the most part, concerned with vertical interactions, i.e., the relationship between citizen and the state, rather than horizontal ones, i.e., between citizens themselves. To this end, most constitutions, prescribe a threshold before an action which takes away rights can be categorized as state action. In the Indian Constitution, this takes the form of article 12 which defines a set of entities/institutions/bodies which may be called ‘state’ and against whom action for violation of fundamental rights lies.While there was no specific mention of private corporations in the Constituent Assembly debates, the ra tionale for the existence of the phrase ‘other authorities’ makes it clear that there is nothing which stops it being applied to them.