New Delhi, Aug 24: In a landmark judgement that will impact the lives of all 134 crore Indians and may give a massive jolt to government's Aadhaar push, a nine-judge Supreme Court bench today said Right to Privacy is a Fundamental right.
Delivering a unanimous verdict, Supreme Court overruled eight-judge bench judgment in MP Sharma case and six-judge bench judgment in Kharak Singh case -- both of which had ruled that privacy is not a Fundamental Right.
Supreme Court said Right to Privacy is intrinsic to Right to Life granted under Article 21 of the Constitution.
However, the court has not ruled on the validity of sharing information under Aadhaar today. Now a five-judge bench of the apex court will test the validity of Aadhaar from the aspect of privacy as a Fundamental Right.
The contentious issue had emerged when the apex court was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the government's move to make biometric-based Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.
The Chief Justice JS Khehar-headed Constitution bench had reserved its verdict on August 2 after hearing marathon arguments for six days over a period of three weeks.
While reserving the verdict on August 2, the bench had voiced concern over the possible misuse of personal information in the public domain and said that protection of the concept of privacy in the all-pervading technological era was a "losing battle".
However, during the arguments, the bench had on July 19 observed that the right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the state may have some power to put reasonable restrictions.
Acknowledging the challenge involved, Justice Chandrachud, on the last day of hearing, tentatively outlined a proposal -a three-tier, graded fundamental right status to privacy.
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