Right to Privacy declared as a Fundamental Right

In a landmark judgment that will impact the lives of 134 crore Indians, a nine-judge Supreme Court Constitutional bench declared “ Right to Privacy a Fundamental right”.

Delivering a unanimous verdict, Supreme Court overruled the earlier eight-judge bench judgment in MP Sharma case in 1958 and six-judge bench judgment in Kharak Singh case in 1961 — both of which had ruled that privacy is not a Fundamental Right.

The important aspects with respect to Right to Privacy are as follows:

• The Right to Privacy is an element of various legal traditions to restrain government and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals.
• The Right to Privacy “is protected as an intrinsic part of Article 21 of the Constitution that protects life and liberty”, as the Supreme Court ruled.
• The order is based on an array of petitions that have challenged the mandatory use of Aadhar cards which assign a unique 12-digit ID to every citizen. The Aadhar database links iris scans and fingerprints to more than a billion people.
• Supreme Court’s verdict does not comment on whether the government’s demand for Aadhar to be linked to all financial transactions amounts to an infringement of privacy.
• Judges have shown concern towards Indians already providing vast troves of personal information to online platforms like Apple and Google which might cause a hindrance to Right to Privacy.
• The government says Aadhar is essential for all services including tax returns, opening bank accounts and securing loans, pensions and cash transfers for those entitled to welfare schemes. It has rejected suggestions that the Aadhar program, set up in 2009 by the previous Congress-led government, poses a threat to civil liberties.
• Critics say the Aadhar identity card links enough data to allow profiling because it creates a comprehensive profile of a person’s spending habits, their friends and acquaintances, the property they own, and a trove of other information.

With respect to Aadhar issue being raised, the Supreme Court has said that with a small bench panel it will have this issue raised and come to a conclusion with respect to it.

Thus the Supreme Court judgment has given a relief to the People of India and also raised a concern with respect to Aadhar being issued to every citizen and also personal details of every citizen being taken for issue of the card, which is contrary to Right of Privacy.