#ThrowbackToday: When Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right

In today's #TBT, we recall the day when the Supreme Court declared that, indeed, the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right under Indian Constitution. Read more about the landmark judgement here
Locked up | (Pic: Max Pixel)
Locked up | (Pic: Max Pixel)

Right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution.

When a solid nine-judge Constitution bench made the aforementioned ruling, it was a win for privacy in India. After all, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right on August 24, 2017! So with this, it was understood that any action taken by the State that infringes upon the privacy of citizens would come under judicial review.

The case was that of Justice KS Puttaswamy vs Union Of India and the judgement was made with regards to the legal challenge to Aadhaar, the 12-digit unique identification number. The Advocate General of India was arguing that the Constitution does not include the right to privacy within it. The bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, made a unanimous judgement which has now gone down in history.  

In fact, there were several petitioners who stated that making Aadhaar mandatory for availing the various benefits that come with social welfare schemes is an infringement of privacy and it is in this context that the judgement was made. With this, the Supreme Court also stated that the Right to Privacy is not an absolute one and comes with reasonable restrictions.

Related Stories

No stories found.
X
logo
EdexLive
www.edexlive.com