After the hearings in the Supreme Court fortnight this Wednesday. The nine – judge Constitutional bench along with the Chief Justice J.S Khehar reserved the verdict stating that whether the right to Privacy should be put in the shoes of Fundamental right or not. Even though the Government has reserved the date for announcing the Verdict, but the main issue is that the nine-judge Constitutional bench is unsure with the dates.
The nine-judge Constitution had been making hearings over three days each week from 18th of July. Endless arguments and talkbacks are going on between the lawyers of the Central Government, states and the petitioners who have signed the petition saying that the collection of the personal details during the Aadhaar enrollment is a threat to privacy.
The center point of attraction of the whole situation is that – the right to privacy is a fundamental right and needs to be concerned about. This right to privacy has punched the clock to all the legal contexts regarding the Aadhaar issues, like the Enrollment number which has now become the base and bottom of the Indian Government welfare programmes, tax-administration network and financial based transactions.
Gopal Subramanium, who is the lawyer in the favor of the petitioners and the right to privacy has urged the Supreme Court to view Privacy is not as a shade of fundamental right but as one that was “inalienable and quintessential to the Construction of the Constitution”. He also added that the concept of privacy is impacted in the right to liberty and dignity. “Privacy is our right and is sought to defined” says Shyam Divan the counsel of one of the petitioners. He also stated that it should include bodily integrity, personal autonomy, personal surveillance and freedom of movement/dissent /thought.
On 26th of July, the Center continued with the set of the arguments, stood with the act of privacy and conceded for the first time that it is a fundamental right under the constitution tagging with a caution that the right could not be extended on “every aspect” of the privacy. The four states – Punjab, Karnataka, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh along with the Union Territory Puducherry fostered the Constitutionality of the “Right To Privacy”. Later the states Haryana and Kerala also joined the tribe of the movement of “Right to Privacy.”
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology appointed an expert group headed by the former Supreme Court Judge B.N. Shrikrishna to place a data protection legislation. The UIDAI represented by Tushar Mehta who is the solicitor general also stood up saying that it is our right and needs to be duly protected.
Above all the issues lies the decisions of the nine-judge Constitutional Bench, once they are done with the privacy matter, the remaining issues related to Aadhaar will be heard by the smaller bench of the Supreme Court.