The Centre told Supreme Court that “there is a fundamental right to privacy, but it is a wholly qualified right”. The apex court was hearing the Aadhaar card privacy issue on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Attorney General KK Venugopal has said that privacy as a fundamental right was intentionally avoided from Article 21.
“Privacy, as a fundamental right, could have been mentioned in 21, but has been omitted. This was deliberate,” said Venugopal. He also said that “the rights under 21 are not absolute. That is why we have the death penalty for gross crimes and incarceration for crimes.”
He also made debated that right to life “transcends” right to privacy.
The nine-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar began hearing in the case in the morning. The petitioners claimed that the twelve-digit biometric unique identification
The bench was dealing with the limited issue of right to privacy. The issues challenging the Aadhaar scheme would be sent back to a smaller bench.
