Puttaswamy: the Supreme Court declares privacy a fundamental right

In 30 seconds

• The right to privacy is a fundamental right, protected as part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and the freedoms in Part III.
• All nine judges agreed.
• The Court overruled M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra (1954) and Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1962) to the extent they held that the Constitution does not protect privacy.

Background

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, a retired High Court judge, challenged the Aadhaar scheme. The government argued that, based on the 1954 and 1962 judgments, the Constitution did not guarantee a right to privacy. Because those were decisions of larger benches, the question was referred to a nine-judge bench.

The issue

Is the right to privacy a fundamental right under the Constitution of India?

What the Court held

Yes. Privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty and to the freedoms guaranteed in Part III. It includes protecting personal information and the right to make intimate personal choices.

Like other fundamental rights, privacy is not absolute. The lead opinion held that a law restricting privacy must have a legitimate aim, must be backed by law, and must be proportionate to that aim.

Why it matters

Puttaswamy is the foundation of later rulings on personal liberty, including Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018), which decriminalised consensual same-sex relations. The Aadhaar scheme itself was decided by a separate five-judge bench in 2018. The judgment also informed India’s data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Key terms

Proportionality: the test that a restriction on a right must be no greater than needed to achieve a legitimate aim.

Part III: the part of the Constitution listing fundamental rights (Articles 12 to 35).