Introduction

In this landmark judgment a nine judges' bench of Supreme Court held that the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.

Facts

• ‘Aadhar’ was introduced as a card from which a person can be identified. It was issued as an ‘Unique Identity’ and the authority who issues the card and enrolls a person is known as Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
  • UIDAI was established in 2009. The main aim behind the implementation of Unique Identification Scheme (UIS) was to provide a unique identity number which is unique in nature and as everyone will have only one identity with no chance of duplication.
  • UIDAI has secured the enrolment of almost 1.1 billion people in this country.
• The Aadhar project was challenged by the petitioners. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Mr. Pravesh Khanna filed a writ petition when the Aadhaar scheme was not under legislative umbrella.
• It was challenged on the challenged on the ground that it violates fundamental rights of the innumerable citizens of India, namely, right to privacy falling under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
• In 2016, when the Aadhar Act was passed, many other petitioners challenged the Aadhar Act by filing writ petition. All the writ petitions with the same objective were clubbed together.

Issues Involved

• Whether the Aadhaar Act violates the right to privacy and is unconstitutional on this ground?
• What is the magnitude of protection that needs to be accorded to collection, storage and usage of biometric data?
• Whether the Aadhaar Project creates or tends to create surveillance state and is unconstitutional on this ground?

Observation

• A unanimous verdict by a nine judge Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) declared ‘privacy’ to be constitutionally protected, as a facet of liberty, dignity and individual autonomy.
• The SC held that the right of privacy is a fundamental right. It is a right which protects the inner sphere of the individual from interference from both State and non-State actors and allows the individuals to make autonomous life choices.
• Right to privacy is a part of fundamental rights which can be traced to Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
• The fundamental right to privacy would cover at least three aspects:
  • intrusion with an individual’s physical body,
  • informational privacy, and
  • privacy of choice.
• The SC stated that privacy is a concomitant of the right of the individual to exercise control over his or her personality.
• The Court has held, in no uncertain terms, that privacy has always been a natural right which gives an individual freedom to exercise control over his or her personality.
• Privacy is also recognized as a natural right which inheres in individuals and is, thus, inalienable.
• The judgment further lays down that in the context of Article 21, the test to be applied while examining a particular provision is the ‘just, fair and reasonable test’ thereby bringing notion of proportionality (proportionality test).
• The Aadhaar Act creates a database of all Indian residents and citizens with their core biometric information, demographic information and meta data. Such information can affect every aspect of an individual’s personal, professional, religious and social life, such power is a threat to individual freedoms.
• The decision in M P Sharma v Satish Chandra, District Magistrate, Delhi (1954) and Kharak Singh v. State of U.P. & Ors (1963) was over-ruled in this case by the SC.