New Delhi, July 18 : Do citizens have a fundamental right to privacy? A Five-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of of India JS Khehar on Tuesday referred the issue to a Nine-Judge Constitution Bench for an authoritative determination.
Commencing its hearing on Wednesday, the Nine-Judge Bench will review the top court’s earlier verdicts that said citizens didn’t have a fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution. An Eight-Judge Constitution Bench had in MP Sharma’s case in 1954 ruled that citizens didn’t have a fundamental right to privacy. The ruling was followed by a six-Judge Bench in Kharak Singh’s case in 1962.There was a huge uproar in July 2015 when then Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi — based on these two verdicts — said Constitution didn’t give any fundamental right to privacy to citizens.On Tuesday, a Five-Judge Constitution Bench headed by CJI Khehar said the issue needed to be determined before it decided petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar scheme on the ground it violated right to privacy.