Right to Privacy verdict | No fault in concept of Aadhaar, but in govt’s implementation: Congress
The Supreme Court pronounces its judgment on the right to privacy.
Giving its verdict on the vexatious issue, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that privacy is a guaranteed fundamental right under the Constitution.
Headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, the nine-judge constitution bench unanimously held that privacy is a fundamental right under article 21-part 3, after hearing marathon arguments for six days over a period of three weeks.
The contentious issue had emerged when the apex court was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.
The bench overruled the M P Sharma verdict of 1950 and that of Kharak Singh of 1960.
The judgement in the Kharak Singh case was pronounced by eight judges and in M P Sharma it was delivered by six judges.
Who are the nine judges?
Besides CJI Khehar, the other judges of the nine-judge bench are Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, R F Nariman, A M Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, S K Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.
Who argued either in favour or against?
The high-voltage hearing saw a battery of senior lawyers, including Attorney General K K Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Arvind Datar, Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subaramaniam, Shyam Divan, Anand Grover, C A Sundaram and Rakesh Dwivedi, advancing arguments either in favour or against the inclusion of right to privacy as a fundamental right.
The decision to set up the nine-judge bench was taken to examine the correctness of two apex court judgements delivered in the cases of Kharak Singh and M P Sharma, decided by six and eight judge benches respectively, in which it was held that this right was not a fundamental right.
While the Kharak Singh judgement was delivered in 1960, the M P Sharma verdict was reported in 1950.
(With agency inputs)
Latest Updates
â–º The 547-page judgment is authored by Justice DY Chandrachud.
â–º Justice J Chelameswar, Justice S A Bobde, Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul have delivered separate judgments.
P Chidambaram on Judgment
â–º The judgment delivered is a landmark verdict and will rank among the most important judgments delivered by Supreme Court, since the advent of Constitution of India.
â–º It should be possible to ask Supreme Court now to reopen its judgment on Sections 377.
â–º There are other issues data collection, data transfer, data freedom, misuse of Aadhar. Each question will now be addressed through a new lens.
â–º The new lens is that right to privacy is a fundamental right.
Nothing wrong with concept of Aadhaar, fault in govt’s implementation, says Congress
Privacy is a guaranteed Fundamental Right: Supreme Court
Right to privacy intrinsic to life and part of article 21- part 3: SC