Is privacy a Fundamental Right? 9-judge Bench to decide today
A nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar will assemble on Wednesday to decide on a limited question whether privacy is a Fundamental Right or not.
The Bench’s decision will be crucial in deciding the fate of Aadhaar as the government has been pressing the apex court to dismiss all PILs challenging Aadhaar card which said it is a breach of the right to privacy.
After the larger nine-judge Bench decides on the privacy case, the original three-judge Bench will hear all Aadhaarrelated cases in the court.
Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar said a larger Bench of nine judges is essential “to define if the right to privacy is a Fundamental Right under the Constitution or not”.
But why a nine-judge Bench? Because twice in the past — In 1954, an eight-judge Bench and in 1962 a six-judge Bench —had said privacy is not a Fundamental Right.
In view of these rulings of the two Constitution Benches, Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted that the issue before the courts was restricted to the binding nature of the past precedents.
On Tuesday, a five-judge Bench led by the CJ had met in accordance with the court’s earlier decision — on a bunch of petitions which claimed Aadhaar is violating privacy — to shift the issue to the larger Bench.
A total of 22 cases and PILs (Public Interest Litigations) challenging several aspects of Aadhaar, its use and sharing of data collected under the government’s ambitious project, was tagged by the apex court to be heard by the five-judge bench.
The PILs have been piling up since 2003 to challenge the 12-digit biometric identification under Aadhaar which has now become the bedrock of government welfare programmes and also for the tax administration network apart from online financial transactions.
“Once the privacy question is settled by the larger Bench, the remaining issues related to Aadhaar would be heard by the original 3-judge Bench,” the CJI said. If the larger Bench decides that citizens indeed have the right to privacy, the three-judge Bench will define the boundaries of that right.
To address the privacy question, the nine-judge Bench is likely to examine the past judgments and decide if privacy is a Fundamental Right under the Constitution and if it is acceptable as a right or needs to be redefined.
Apart from grounds of infringement of privacy, activists have challenged the government making Aadhaar mandatory for doling out social welfare benefits, and for filing of income tax returns (ITRs) as well as for obtaining and retaining the personal account number (PAN) necessary for filing tax returns.
The Aadhaar. (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act enacted last year by the government mandates that the unique identity number mandatory to receive social welfare benefits.
The Bench’s decision will be crucial in deciding the fate of Aadhaar as the government has been pressing the apex court to dismiss all PILs challenging Aadhaar card which said it is a breach of the right to privacy.