SC's nine judge to decide if right to privacy fundamental right

The Supreme Court on Tuesday put before a nine-judge bench to decide if right to privacy is a fundamental right of citizens under the Constitution.
 
“We want to decide if it is a right or fundamental right or not,” a five-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar said after Attorney General K K Venugopal contended that our founding fathers “consciously” decided not to include this particular right in the Constitution after recognising other rights.
 
The top law officer cited eight-judge (full quorum at that time) bench decision in M P Sharma Vs Satish Chand (1950) and six-judge bench judgement in Kharag Singh Vs State of UP (1962) to claim that it has been held decisively that there is no fundamental right to privacy. Though, there could be common law right to privacy, he added.
 
The bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud and S Abdul Nazeer, decided to place before a larger bench for examining the crucial issue concerning right to privacy of citizens, raised by a group of Aadhaar challengers.
 
“During the course of the hearing, it seems that it has become essential for us to determine whether there is any fundamental right of privacy under the Indian Constitution,” the bench said.
 
The petitioners led by former Karnataka HC judge Justice K S Puttaswamy contended that the government's move to issue Aadhaar to every citizen violated her right to privacy and made the country a surveillance state as UID authorities forced the people to part with intimate body details.They claimed the right to privacy is part of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and interspersed in Article 19 of the Constitution.
 
"We are of the view that the issue deserves to be placed before a nine-judge bench," CJI Khehar said.
 
The court said that the nine-judge bench would assemble on Wednesday for a day to determine the issue and if the view taken by the previous benches were “correct expression of the constitutional position”.
 
Senior advocates Gopal Subramanian, Shyam Divan, Anand Grover and Arvind P Datar, appearing for a batch of petitioners, contended the apex court in subsequent judgements had recognised the right to privacy.