New Delhi: The Supreme Court by upholding the Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right has saved the citizen’s bedrooms, kitchens and drawing rooms from the prying eyes of an authoritarian State,’’ senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said here today taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Modi Government had during its 39 months’ rule been trying to strike at personal liberties of its people by unleashing cow vigilantes, anti-romeo squads, dictating what to eat what not to eat, but now the court had finally acted to show to the Government what its limit was, Mr Tewari, former Information & Broadcasting Minister, said in an interaction with UNI journalists here. In terms of its impact and significance, today’s judgement is comparable to the apex court’s ruling in 1973 Keshavnand Bharti case, in which it held the basic structure of the Constitution was beyond Parliament’s power to change, Mr Tewari said. In 1973, where there was a spectre of political dominance, the Kesavnanda Bharati ruling delineated the basic features of the Constitution and made it clear once for all that these were out of the purview of Parliament under Article 368, and thus saved the India democracy.
Similarly today when there was the spectre of authoritarianism of ‘one and a half man Government’ and a strong feeling that the fundamental freedoms of citizens were being transgressed upon, the SC decision had saved the day for Indian democracy by elevating the right to privacy to the levels of other articles relating to fundamental rights, the Congress leaders said. With this judgement, now the citizens can hope that the Modi Government will not intrude into the privacy of their bed rooms, kitchens, drawing rooms and kitchens, Tewari said.
The apex court in its today’s ruling said the Right to Privacy was intrinsic to Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21, thus overruling the judgements in the MP Sharma case and Kharak Singh case. The matter had been referred to the bench comprising besides the CJI, Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agarawal, Rohinton F Nariman, Abhaya Manohar Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abdul Nazeer, after the Government’s Aadhaar card project, with its bio-metric registration process and linkage to basic and essential subsidies, was challenged for violation of the citizens’ right to privacy.
