Right to Privacy is a fundamental right: Supreme Court
New Delhi, August 24: The Right to privacy is a fundamental right, says Supreme Court today in its verdict on the Right to Privacy.
A nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court has delivered its unanimous and historic Right to Privacy verdict. The verdict, on whether Right to Privacy is a fundamental right, will have a bearing on other key verdicts, including the ones on the validity of Aadhaar and the ruling on Section 377 which criminalises gay sex.
Justice Jasti Chelameswar who was the first to read out the verdict is the third most senior judge in the Supreme Court after the CJI and Justice Dipak Misra, was appointed to the apex court on October 10, 2011. Prior to being named to the Supreme Court, he served as the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court from May 2007 to March 2010 and Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court from March 2010 to October 2011. Justice Chelameswar, along with Justice RF Nariman, was part of the two-judge constitutional bench that heard the landmark Shreya Singhal v. Union of India case in 2015 and struck down the contentious Section 66 (A) of the Information Technology Act, which gave powers to the police to arrest anyone posting emails or electronic messages that cause “annoyance or inconvenience”.
Justice, M.P. Sharma did not consider the constitutional provisions being asserted today in favour of privacy interests under the Constitution. Rather, it ruled on the basis of the right against self-incrimination and the fundamental right to property (the latter is now deleted). The petitioners in the current case, on the other hand, argue for privacy interests primarily under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty).
Earlier on August 2, the nine-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court has reserved its judgement over issue of whether right to privacy is fundamental right or not. On July 26, the Centre told the apex court that there is a fundamental right to privacy, but as a ‘wholly qualified right’.
The centre made this submission before the nine-judge Constitution bench that is hearing the Aadhaar Card privacy matter. Attorney General, K.K. Venugopal told the apex court that “privacy, as a fundamental right, could have been mentioned in Article 21, but has been omitted. Right to life transcends right to privacy”.
In special circumstances, government can interfere in a matter that comes under a wholly qualified right. An absolute right cannot be reduced or amended. Earlier on July 20, all the petitioners had completed their argument in the apex court. The petitioners contested that the twelve-digit biometric unique identification card raises privacy threat.
On June 10, the top court had ruled that from July 1 onward, every person eligible to obtain Aadhar card must quote their Aadhaar number or their Aadhaar Enrolment ID number for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as for applications for Permanent Account Number (PAN). The Income Tax Department has stepped up its efforts to encourage people to link their PAN with Aadhar.
