Aadhaar: 9-judge Bench to consider whether privacy is a basic right:

Aadhaar: 9-judge Bench to consider whether privacy is a basic right:  (Nine- Judge Constitution Bench to hear Aadhaar petitions)

Context: The Supreme Court decided to set up a nine-judge bench to decide whether right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution Introduction:

• A nine- judge Bench of the Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the question whether privacy is a fundamental human rights and is part of the basic structure of the Constitution
• The decision taken by a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Khehar is on the basis of a bunch of petitions contending that the Aadhaar scheme is a violation of the citizens’ right to privacy.
• The petitions have argued that right to privacy is part of Article 21, the right to life, and interspersed in Article 19, though not explicitly slated in the Constitution.

Judgments :

• Two judgments of the Supreme Court- the M.P . Sharma case verdict pronounced by an eight-judge Bench in 1954 shortly after the Constitution came into force in 1950 and the Kharak Singh case verdict of 1962 by a six-judge Bench had dominated the judicial dialogue on privacy since Independence
• Both the judgments had concluded that privacy was not a fundamental or ‘guaranteed’ right
• The Supreme Court has decided to determine once and for all whether privacy is negotiable or not. The nine-judge Bench seeks to bring a quietus to the divergent judicial pronouncements of the past.
• “We have to first determine whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not before going into the issue on the constitutionality of the Aadhaar scheme, “Chief Justice Khehar said.