“Right To Privacy Is A Fundamental Right” Declares Supreme Court; Setback For Aadhaar Push?

Supreme Court has just delivered a landmark judgement, wherein they have declared that Right to Privacy is a Fundamental Right of every 134 crore Indians, as mentioned under Article 21 of Indian constitution.

In a major embarrassment to the Govt., the 9-Judge bench hearing the case gave a 9-0 verdict in favour of declaring Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right. This means that none of the Judges opposed the arguments put forth by the petitioners, and none of the Judges supported the arguments presented by the Govt. related to Right to Privacy.

The Bench issued two crucial statements, which would be used as a foundation for a long time to come: “Right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution”; and “Privacy comes under the Right to Life and Liberty”

Besides, the Bench overruled the earlier judgements, pertaining to Privacy and Fundamental Right: 8-judge bench judgment in MP Sharma case and 6-judge bench judgment in Kharak Singh case, in which it was ruled that Right to Privacy is not a Fundamental Right.

Article 21, which has been referenced as the benchmark and standard for this case, says, “Protection of life and personal liberty No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law..”

After the ruling on Triple Talaaq, this is another very important ruling by the apex court, in a week. This week is turning out to be a phenomenal one for entire Judiciary.

Is It A Setback For Govt. & Its Aadhaar Push?

The petition which resulted in today’s judgement was filed in the Supreme Court, opposing Govt. of India’s aggressive push for making Aadhaar mandatory for almost every welfare schemes, Govt. issued documents and day to day tasks.

Now, the most interesting question: Will Aadhaar push be rolled back by Govt., after this judgement?

No, that won’t happen right now, but yes, limitations can be placed.

Today’s judgement was related to a general issue, concerning Right to Privacy and it’s importance in our Constitution. The actual case of Aadhaar related schemes would be heard by another bench of 5 judges.

The judgement related to Aadhaar push would be now announced by this bench of 5 judges, who will now understand the validity of Aadhaar related schemes, against the backdrop of today’s judgement.

Hence, in a way, today’s judgement can be described as a setback for Govt., but cannot be declared as Govt.’s defeat against advocates of anti-Aadhaar movement.

Views and opinions are still coming in, but largely, it is believed that the smaller 5-judge bench can stop Govt. from implementing some of the Aadhaar related activities, which actually invades privacy of a citizen, and ‘forces’ him/her to share private information.

Besides, instances of Aadhaar data ‘leak’ can also become more strict and severely punishable, as such leaks will directly violate Right to Privacy.

We will keep you updated.