New Delhi: A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will determine on Thursday whether there is any fundamental “right to privacy” under the Constitution, which arose in the furnishing of personal and biometric information under the Aadhaar card.
A five-judge bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud and S. Abdul Nazeer had heard a batch of petitions that challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar card and referred the matter to a nine-judge bench on whether the “right to privacy” was a fundamental right or not.
A bench of nine judges which heard the matter for two weeks, will revisit after 55 years two earlier rulings which held that the “right to privacy” was not a fundamental right.
The petitioners, former Karnataka high court judge K.S. Puttaswamy and others, contended that the biometric data and iris scan being collected for the Aadhaar card violated citizens’ fundamental right to privacy. It was argued that the right to life under Article 21 included the right to privacy though it was not expressly stated in the Constitution.
