“It is shockingly anachronistic for the Centre to say that we don’t have a fundamental right to privacy at all. In the Aadhaar issue, it is not that all rich people are opposing it and poor people, who are beneficiaries of subsidy, are supporting it. The right to privacy of the poor man who chooses not to avail any subsidy should also be protected. And also, why should it be made compulsory for him to open a bank account? There is no logic,” said senior advocate Arvind P. Datar, while delivering the tenth Rajaji Memorial Lecture organised by The Triplicane Cultural Academy and Kasturi Srinivasan Library here, on Saturday.
Speaking on ‘The Controversial Right to Privacy,’ Mr. Datar said that the verdict in the Aadhaar case, which will be delivered in the next few days, will have far-reaching consequences on the issue.
“Privacy can be divided into 3 components: physical, informational privacy, decisional autonomy. Is privacy a common law or fundamental right? If it is considered a common law, then if the State injects truth serum against an individual will, then the individual cannot file a writ petition in court,” Mr. Datar said.
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Presiding over the lecture, N. Ravi, director, Kasturi & Sons Limited, said, “Some of the issues engaging the attention of the nine-judge Bench are complicated and tricky. The verdict will affect all our lives in a profound way. These issues call for judicial statesmanship and creativity of highest order to resolve.”