‘Privacy is a qualified fundamental right’

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that “there is a fundamental right to privacy, but it is a wholly qualified right”. The apex court was hearing the Aadhaar card privacy issue.

A wholly qualified right is one where government interference is allowed in special circumstances, and only when necessary in a democratic society as opposed to an absolute right, which cannot be limited in any way. An absolute right can not be reduced or amended.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General K K Venugopal argued that privacy as a fundamental right was deliberately avoided from Article 21. “Privacy, as a fundamental right, could have been mentioned in 21 but has been omitted. This was deliberate,” said Venugopal.

Advocate Gopal Subramanium, who is appearing for the petitioners, said on Tuesday. He also argued that privacy is embedded in all processes of human life and liberty. The bench is dealing with the limited issue of the right to privacy and matters challenging the Aadhaar scheme would be referred back to a smaller bench.

Meanwhile, four non-bjp ruled states, including Karnataka and West Bengal, have moved the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in the ongoing hearing on the issue of whether the Right to Privacy can be declared as one of the Fundamental Rights under the Constitution.

Besides Karnataka and West Bengal, two Congress-led states of Punjab and Puducherry took a stand opposite to the Central government which had said that Right to Privacy is a common law right and not a Fundamental Right.