Supreme Court’s Landmark Judgment Upholds Right To Privacy As ‘Fundamental Right’

SC rules Right to privacy a Fundamental Right/ All images: PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday in its landmark judgment stated “Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right” of every citizen of the country. The decision was unanimously taken by a 9-judge bench of apex court. In its ruling, the apex court said that the personal details of any citizen cannot be made public and everyone is entitled to right to privacy. The court also said that it is possible to decide on the ‘extent of privacy’ one is to be granted. Following this, a 5 judge constitution bench would decide whether Aadhar card violates Right to privacy or not. The Supreme Court, earlier on August 2, had reserved its judgement over the issue of whether right to privacy is fundamental or not. On July 26, the Centre told the apex court that there is a fundamental right to privacy, which is a wholly qualified right too. The Centre made this submission before the nine-judge Constitution bench. 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, the 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).