Judgment a blow to ‘fascist forces’, says Congress

Congress president Sonia Gandhi welcomed the judgment on right to privacy, saying it struck a blow to the “unbridled encroachment and surveillance” by the state and its agencies in the life of common man.

Welcoming the judgment as a “victory” for every Indian, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the verdict “marks a major blow to fascist” forces. “A sound rejection of the BJP's ideology of suppression through surveillance,” he tweeted.

The ruling side also welcomed the verdict as a “positive development”, with finance minister Arun Jaitley stating that the SC has accepted the government's “argument that privacy is a fundamental right but it's not an absolute right”.

Jaitley blamed the previous UPA government for bringing the biometric ID card programme Aadhaar without a law or safeguards due to which individual privacy being a fundamental right had to be settled by the Supreme Court.

“No safeguards were put by UPA as to how data would be protected or could be used. So people challenged it saying you are collecting data and what will you do with it, which are the privacy clauses in it and, therefore, the challenge was there,” he said.

Jaitley said the BJP-led NDA government, while framing the law for use of the biometric identifier, ensured all safeguards and that privacy as a fundamental right is respected. “The ruling is positive because as the evolution of constitutional law goes on, there is always an effort to strengthen fundamental rights.”

The attack by Gandhis on the NDA government is an indication that the Congress is going to make the verdict a talking point in the coming days and even try to corner the ruling side on the issue in the upcoming state elections.

Earlier at the party's media briefing, senior leader P Chidambaram hailed the verdict as a landmark judgment and a setback to the Centre, which, he said, had maintained that there could be no fundamental right to privacy. He said the verdict would rank among the most important judgments delivered by SC since the advent of the Constitution of India.

“Privacy is at the core of personal liberty. In fact, privacy is an inalienable part of life itself. By virtue of the judgment, Article 21 has acquired new magnificence,” said Chidambaram.

He said the most important fundamental right of a citizen is embodied in Article 21 of the Constitution. “It is the right to life and liberty. Civilised societies will breathe meaning into that precious right and guard against any erosion of that right.”

The former finance minister criticised the Modi government's approach in its interpretation of Aadhaar under Article 21 -- on the protection of life and personal liberty – and claimed its stand was inconsistent. The Aadhaar Act was legislated keeping in view that privacy is a fundamental right. It has very strong privacy protection provisions...the verdict by the nine-judge bench has not commented anything on Aadhaar law. It has referred the matter to a three-judge bench to decide whether Aadhaar scheme as reflected in the Act satisfies this judgment. Since it is a valid law of the land today, so work will have to be done as per the Aadhaar Act. The law authorises the government to make it a pre-requisite for delivery of benefits and services. Amendments have been made in other We have given Aadhaar numbers to more than 170 crore citizens. More than 800 crore transactions have happened and authentication have happened. In the last seven years, not a single instance of identity theft or any financial loss has come to our notice. UIDAI has to be very vigilant about all emerging threat regarding data security. There is a process of continuous review of the existing protection system to ensure data remains It is a local violation. .. some unscrupulous officials might deny somebody of benefits even if he produces Aadhaar card. If somebody does not follow the provision of law and Aadhaar Act, then he has to be punished. Beneficiary has to approach higher authority for redressal. Section 7 of the Act makes it very clear that no one can be denied benefits for lack of an Aadhaar number or failure of authentication. If, for some reason, the authentication system does not work, then the person will have to give proof of possession of Aadhaar and the benefits will be given. It varies from state to state. Overall, the success rate is in the range of 90%-98%.