Privacy a fundamental right of citizen

In a historic verdict, Indian Supreme Court has ruled that an individual's right to privacy is a fundamental right under the constitution.

Privacy is “an intrinsic part of article 21 [of the constitution] that protects life and liberty”, it said.

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Delivering a unanimous judgment yesterday, a nine-member SC bench overruled some previous verdicts which had found that the right to privacy was not protected by the constitution.

The SC bench consisted of Chief Justice JS Khehar, justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay K Kaul and Abdul Nazeer.

Yesterday's judgment came a couple of days after another SC bench had declared instant triple talaq unconstitutional.

The SC announced the verdict after holding hearing on the issue for six days. The matter was referred to a constitution bench by a five-judge bench hearing some petitions challenging a law under which Aadhaar multi-purpose identity card is issued to Indians by the government.

The question whether the right to privacy was a fundamental right guaranteed under article 21 of the constitution was first raised in the apex court before a three-judge bench. A batch of petitioners had challenged the Indian government's move to make Aadhaar card mandatory for receiving benefit from social and welfare schemes.

 The three-judge bench had referred the case to a larger bench on July 7. The five-judge constitution bench on July 18 decided to refer the matter to the nine-judge bench.

Yesterday's judgment was, however, not meant to decide on the fate of Aadhaar card, but just on whether privacy of an individual was part of his inviolable fundamental rights.

This means the five-judge SC bench will examine the validity of Aadhaar card on the touchstone of privacy as a fundamental right.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, who had argued that right to privacy can't be a fundamental right, welcomed the SC decision.

Earlier, he had argued that “privacy, even if assumed to be a fundamental right, consists of a large number of sub-species... It will be constitutionally impermissible to declare each and every instance of privacy a fundamental right. Privacy has varied connotations when examined from different aspects of liberties”.

On the other hand, the petitioners contended that the right to privacy was “inalienable” and “inherent” to the most important fundamental right -- the right to liberty.

Meanwhile, jurists and senior lawyers welcomed the SC verdict on right to privacy, terming it progressive.

Senior advocate Soli Sorabjee said it showed the “good approach” of the SC which didn't hesitate to overrule its previous judgments.

The former attorney general said the judgment was very progressive and it protected people's fundamental rights. “Privacy is a basic right which is inherent in every individual.”

“The unanimity of the bench in giving this decision shows a very good approach of the Supreme Court. Any judgment which broadens people's fundamental rights should be welcomed,” he added.

Expressing optimism that the Indian citizens would now be protected from any kind of snooping, senior lawyer Indira Jaising said, “It is a day to celebrate.”

“Privacy is fundamental. It certainly has an impact on day-to-day life. This verdict prevents any kind of snooping,” she said.