The constitutional bench of Supreme court, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, assembled today to hear if the right to privacy falls under Indian Constitution Article 21(Right to Life and Liberty). Earlier the date of the hearing was on 25th July, but because of the Swearing in Ceremony of the new President of India, it was postponed to today, July 26, 2017.
On the matter whether privacy is fundamental right under Indian Constitution, 4 Non-BJP ruled states i.e. Karnataka, West Bengal, Puducherry and Punjab also moved to the apex court and seeks to intervene in the hearing.
In the hearing of the case today, the Supreme Court said that
Earlier Attorney General K K Venugopal who is arguing for the government argued that
Advocate Gopal Subramanium, who is appearing for the petitioners, presented his case stating that Article 21 was a residuary right. The basic freedoms were under article 19.
In the last week’s hearing, Centre’s contrary statements came out in open where on one hand during the WhatsApp privacy matter it says that sharing personal details on a social networking site is against the fundamental right of a person. Whereas on the Aadhaar case it says that a citizen does not have a fundamental right to privacy. Apart from Karnataka and West Bengal, two congress led states like Punjab and Puducherry opposed the Union Governments stand on the matter.
A petition was filed against the biometric data collection during the Aadhaar Registration raises privacy threat. A nine judge Constitutional Bench headed by the Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar has been set up to decide upon the issue whether the fundamental rights, described under Part III of the Constitution of India, also include the right to privacy?
Senior Advocate and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal who also represents the four states said that
He argued before the nine judge bench that in the light of technological advancement, the court is needed to take a fresh look on the Right to Privacy and its contours in the modern day. The hearing on the case is still underway.
To know more about how privacy changes meaning for Government in different cases read Centres contradictory stand on WhatsApp and Aadhaar privacy case. Know more here
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