In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court today declared right to privacy a fundamental right under the constitution. <br/><br/>A nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution.<br/><br/>The nine judges unanimously overruled the two earlier judgements of the apex court that right to privacy is not protected under the Constitution.<br/><br/>Several petitioners had challenged the validity of the Aadhaar scheme on grounds of it being violative of the right to privacy. <br/><br/>The court had also voiced concern over the possible misuse of personal information in the public domain. The question whether Aadhaar violates right to privacy will be dealt with by the five-judge bench which has been hearing the petitions since 2015.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court today declared right to privacy a fundamental right under the constitution. <br/><br/>A nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution.<br/><br/>The ruling on the highly contentious issue was to deal with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.<br/><br/>Others members of the bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, R F Nariman, A M Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, S K Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer also shared the same view.<br/><br/>The nine judges unanimously overruled the two earlier judgements of the apex court that right to privacy is not protected under the Constitution.

The Supreme Court today declared right to privacy as a fundamental right under the constitution. A nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ruled that right to privacy is protected intrinsically as part of rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. <br/><br/>During the arguments, the bench had earlier observed that the right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the state may have some power to put reasonable restrictions.<br/><br/>The Attorney General had also contended that right to privacy cannot fall in the bracket of fundamental rights as there were binding decisions of larger benches that it was only a common law right evolved through judicial decisions.<br/><br/>The contentious issue had emerged when the apex court was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.