In a 9-0 verdict, Supreme Court says right to privacy is a Fundamental Right: Highlights from judgment

The Supreme Court on Thursday declared to right to privacy as a Fundamental right under the Constitution. A nine-judge constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is protected intrinsically as part of rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Breaking: Right To Privacy is a fundamental right :SC

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Privacy is protected under Article 21 and Part 3 of Constitution :SC — Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) August 24, 2017

Delivering the verdict, the bench observed that privacy is protected under Article 21 and Part 3 of the Indian Constitution.

Representational image.

The ruling will have a bearing on 24 other cases challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds of it violating the right to privacy. Others members of the bench comprising Justice J Chelameswar, Justice S A Bobde, Justice R K Agrawal, Justice R F Nariman, Justice A M Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, S K Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer also shared the same view.

Reading out the "operative portion" of the judgment, Khehar made following observations:

- Decision in MP Sharma case overruled.
- Decision in Kharak Singh case, to the extent it says Right to Privacy is not part of Right to Life, is overruled
- Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of life and personal liberty under Article 21.
- Decisions subsequent to the Kharak Singh case verdict which held privacy as part of right to life are correct.
- A number of writ petitions were tagged along with Justice K Puttaswamy’s petition on Aadhaar, which led to the constitution of this 9 Judge Bench. A slew of Senior Advocates had appeared for various parties in the case.

Here is the full text of the judgment in the case:

Part 1:

Part 2:

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