Right To Privacy Is A Fundamental Right: Supreme Court 

NEW DELHI: In yet another judgment of far-reaching consequences close on the heels of scrapping of triple talaq on Wednesday, Supreme Court on Thursday held that right to privacy is a Fundamental Right and it is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

The judgment came while disposing of petitions questioning the violation of privacy in collection of individuals' information under Aadhaar and making it compulsory for various government schemes.

In a unanimous decision the nine-judge Constitution bench overruled the judgments in MP Sharma and Kharak Singh cases. Reading out the operative portion of the judgment, Chief Justice JS Khehar said, "Few of us have written different orders. However, these are our conclusion: Petitions are disposed of in following terms:

1. The decision in MP Sharma that privacy is not a fundamental right stands overruled.

2. The decision in Kharak Singh that privacy is not a fundamental right stands overruled.

3. Right to privacy is protected as intrinsic part of right to life and liberty.

4. All decisions subsequent to Kharak Singh makes the position clear and will hold the field.

The Judges On The Bench

The court had reserved its verdict on August 3 after marathon day-long hearings spanning six days across three weeks. The bench comprised of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, Rohinton Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

Lawyers Who Argued For And Against

A battery of senior lawyers, including Attorney General KK Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Arvind Datar, Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subramaniam, Shayam Divan, Anand Grover, CA Sundaram and Rakesh Dwivedi, had advanced arguments in favour and against the inclusion of the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Petitions questioned the violation of privacy in collection of information under Aadhaar.

Before the nine judge bench was set up, a five-judge constitution bench headed by chief justice JS Khehar earlier said that the larger bench would examine the correctness of the two judgments delivered in the cases of Kharak Singh and MP Sharma in which it was held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right. Crucially, this bench examined whether the two earlier rulings were correct expressions of the constitution.

Petitioners' Contention

Legal eagles Gopal Subramanium, Soli Sorabjee and Shyam Divan appearing for the petitioners strongly argued for declaration of ‘Right To Privacy’ as a fundamental right.

Subramanium contended that privacy is embedded in all processes of human life and liberty. "All human choices are an exercise of liberty. And they all presuppose privacy," he argued.

Sorabjee argued that privacy is an inalienable right inhering in the very personality of Human beings. "The fact that no express right to privacy is mentioned in the Constitution does not mean that it doesn’t exist Article 19(1)(a) does not guarantee a freedom of the press. But you can deduce it from free speech, which courts have done. The framers said that freedom of the press was implicit in free speech."