Nine-judge Constitution Bench to decide if it can be declared fundamental right

New Delhi,
The Supreme Court will tomorrow decide if right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right.

A nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar—which had on August 2 reserved its verdict on the question—is likely to deliver its verdict at 10.30 am.

Other judges on the Bench are Justices DY Chandrachud, J Chelameswar, SK Kaul, SA Bobde, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, RK Agarwal and Abdul Nazeer.

The issue of right to privacy was referred to the nine-judge Bench by a five-judge Bench after it was pointed out that two earlier decisions of eight-judge and six-judge Benches had ruled that right to privacy was not a fundamental right under the Constitution.

The Bench, which assembled on July 19, had heard several senior advocates, including Attorney General KK Venugopal, for six days in its endeavour to reach a conclusion on the contentious issue.

During the hearing, the Attorney General had conceded that right to privacy was a fundamental right but a qualified one. He, however, had asserted the government had a right to regulate it through a law.

Some states, including Maharashtra, had told the Bench that courts could not introduce right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution. “This is not the case of interpretation of the Constitution or the law. This is the case of introduction of a right as a fundamental right. This can be done only by Parliament,” senior counsel CA Sundaram had told the Bench on behalf of the Maharashtra Government.

On behalf of Gujarat Government, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi had told the Bench that some aspects of privacy may be traced to various fundamental rights but providing basic personal information to authorities was needed to bring more transparency in the present technological era.