SC delivers landmark ruling to uphold Right to Privacy as Fundamental Right under Art 21

New Delhi, Aug 24: In a historic judgement, a nine judge-bench of the Supreme Court today held that the Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution. The bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, overruled earlier judgements of the top court which indicated that privacy may not be a Fundamental Right. The apex court said the right to privacy was intrinsic to Right to life guaranteed under Article 21, thus overruling the judgements in the MP Sharma case and Kharak Singh case. The matter had been referred to the bench comprising besides the CJI, Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agarawal, Rohinton F Nariman, Abhaya Manohar Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abdul Nazeer, after the Government’s Aadhar card project, with its bio-metric registration process and linkage to basic and essential subsidies, was challenged for violation of the citizens’ right to privacy. Now a smaller bench would hear the petitions on Aaadhar project separately. The judgement, which was unanimous, was described by petitioners’ lawyers as ‘’historic.’’ One of the lawyers Prashant Bhushan said that with today’s judgement, the Right to Privacy will be subject only to reasonable restriction examined on the touch stone of Article 21 of the Constitution. He said the the apex court decision was a great setback to the Centre. The court had reserved its verdict on August 2 after hearing marathon arguments for six days. The bench had expressed its concern over the risk of misuse a person faced in having its personal information in public domain, saying the protection of the concept of privacy in the all-pervading technological era was a ‘’losing battle. But the court had also on July 19 observed that the privacy could be an absolute right with the state having power to put reasonable restrictions. UNI