Four States move Supreme Court for declaring right to privacy a fundamental right

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the States, initiated his arguments before a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar. He said that in the light of technological advancement, the court is needed to take a fresh look at the right to privacy and its contours in the modern day.

“Privacy cannot be an absolute right. But it is a fundamental right. This court needs to strike a balance,” he submitted before a Bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

On July 18, the court set up the Constitution Bench after the matter was referred to a larger Bench by a five-judge Bench.

The petitioners had claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the Aadhaar scheme, is a breach of the “fundamental” right to privacy.

On July 19, the Centre submitted in the court that right to privacy cannot fall in the bracket of fundamental rights as there are binding decisions of larger Benches that it is only a common law right evolved through judicial pronouncements.