Aadhaar Conundrum: Do Indians have right to privacy? SC to deliver verdict today

A nine-judge bench will be deciding on Wednesday whether Indian citizens can avail the right to privacy as a constitutional right.

According to a Quint report, The Chief Justice of India decided that the nine-judge bench would pronounce a judgement by Wednesday itself after hearing arguments against opponents of Aadhaar in the first half, followed by arguments from the Government post lunch.

The issue gained national attention due to the legalities surrounding the Aadhaar Unique Identification Number. A Mint report stated that in August 2015, after hearing pleas covering a wide spectrum — from the individual’s privacy rights, the absence of backing regulations and the possible misuse of information — the Apex Court had directed the continued enrollment of Aadhaar, making it a voluntary exercise to avail benefits of welfare schemes.

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A nine-judge constitutional bench was put in place when Attorney-General KK Venugopal and Senior Advocate Shyam Divan requested a larger constitutional bench to ascertain whether the right to privacy can be a fundamental right as guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

What is the need for more judges?

According to the hierarchy of our judicial system, the judgements of a lower court must follow the precedent judgements made by higher courts. As there is nothing larger than the Supreme Court, any judgements made by the apex court must follow the precedent made by Supreme Court Judges of larger benches.

In the case of the right to privacy, there have already been a six-judge bench (Kharak Singh) and an eight-judge bench (MP Sharma) that have ruled against the right to privacy being a fundamental right as guaranteed by the Constitution.

After deciding on the relevancy of both the previous judgements to the Aadhaar issue, it was decided that a bench presided over by a minimum of nine judges is needed to legally overrule any previous judgements on the privacy issue.

How will this affect Aadhaar?

As clarified by a Quint report, the bench will only pronounce a judgement on the issue of the right to privacy and not on the nature of the Aadhar number.

The Aadhar Act passed in 2016 has compelled the citizens of India to register for an Aadhar number and link it with all important details such as bank accounts, PAN Card, tax returns, mobile numbers and the like.

If the nine-judge bench decides that the right to privacy is a fundamental right, a separate bench will need to decide on whether the Aadhaar number is guided by a reasonable law that is not unconstitutional in nature. This might just be too late to change the course of the river.