Supreme Court verdict on Right to Privacy

Justice (retd.) K.S. Puttaswamy, the original petitioner in the right to privacy case. File

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on August 24, 2017 unanimously ruled that the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution. A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar ruled that “right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution“.

The ruling on the highly contentious issue was to deal with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

Read the 547-page judgement here.