Privacy is a fundamental right, says Supreme Court in historic ruling

Nine-judge bench overrules previous judgments on the issue

A nine-judge constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday set aside previous judgments and unanimously declared that privacy was a fundamental right but not an absolute right.

The judgment will have wider implications on the use of Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identification number, by the Union and state governments for the delivery of welfare schemes, and also on how the state and private entities such as Google and Facebook collect an individual’s personal data.

The judgment is also likely to open the floodgates to fresh petitions on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) that criminalises homosexuality.