Right to Privacy

“The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution”.

Was the unanimous ruling by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in K. Puttaswamy v Union of India Case in August 2017.

There were 22 petitioners in all but the lead petitioner who challenged Aadhaar was Justice KS Puttaswamy. The Supreme Court had addressed the issue of privacy in approximately 30 previous judgments.
However, the Government of India argued in this case that privacy is not a fundamental right, stating that this had been determined in two judgments made by an eight-judge and a six-judge Bench. As a result, the matter was first referred to a five-judge Bench and then, to this nine-judge Bench.

Former Attorney General K K Venugopal had argued that “the right of privacy may at best be a common law right, but [it was] not a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution”.
The court said that “infusing a right with a constitutional element” gives it “a sense of immunity from popular opinion and, as its reflection, from legislative annulment”, which a common law right would not have.

SC in its verdict rejected all arguments of the Union government, overruled the court’s judgments in M P Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh, and approved the decisions of its smaller Benches, which had found the right to privacy implicit in the right to life and personal liberty.

The Right to Privacy has emerged at the center of various controversies in recent years, yet its explicit definition remains unclear in many cases.

“The SC has explored principles of autonomy, dignity, and identity in relation to privacy to strengthen the framework of constitutional rights. For instance, it decriminalised all sexual relations between consenting adults, including adults of the same sex, relying on the right to privacy linked with freedom of expression, equality, and non-discrimination…

The Court also examined the role of privacy in the context of end-of-life care and reaffirmed the right to die with dignity. Since Puttaswamy, the SC has deliberated on and expanded the ambit of the right to privacy.”