Privacy  is a fundamental right-Supreme court

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme court unanimously declared that privacy is one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian constitution and that it is “intrinsic to life and liberty.”

The nine-judge Bench comprised Chief Justice J.S.Khehar, Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, R.K. Agrawal, Rohinton F. Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul.

The judgment will have a crucial bearing on the government’s Aadhaar scheme that collects personal details and biometrics to identify beneficiaries for accessing social welfare schemes. The problem with the collection and use of data was the risk of personal information falling in the hands of private players and service providers.The Union government has been arguing that privacy is mainly an issue for the elite and not for the socio-economically deprived who can gain access to the government benefit schemes by enrolling into the Aadhaar scheme.

“Privacy is the constitutional core of human dignity”

The Centre had argued against the recognition of privacy as a fundamental right. It had assured the court that privacy would be protected through parliamentary statutes. But the court retorted that statutory laws “can be made and also unmade by a simple parliamentary majority.”

“The ruling party can, at will, do away with any or all of the protections contained in the statutes. Fundamental rights are rights citizens may enjoy despite the governments they elect,” Justice Rohinton F. Nariman explained in his separate judgment.

Even as this important judgement was pending in the apex court, the government with great impunity has been going ahead, independently passing many regulations, like linking the Aadhaar number with the Pan number, with the Mobile number and even for filing income tax returns, not waiting for the court’s decision.