Right to Privacy verdict: As it happened

SC verdict on Right to Privacy LIVE

A nine-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench, headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar on Thursday declared Right to Privacy as a fundamental right under
the Constitution.

24 August 2017

13:11 IST

Actor Kamal Haasan welcome the Supreme Court declaring privacy as a fundamental right, saying "these are the moments that make India."

In a tweet, he says there was "nothing vague or amorphous about" the apex court's verdict on the matter.

"People thank the Honourable Judges. These are moments that make India."

12:40 IST

BJD MP Jay Panda welcomes SC ruling on Right To Privacy, says "Have been writing on the need for data protection, had introduced a bill in Lok Sabha regarding this."

12:38 IST

P Chidambaram addresses the media, says, "The Aadhar, which the UPA government conceived was perfectly compatible with the Right To Privacy."

The senior Congress leader attacked incumbent government saying, it is the interpretation of this government of the Article 21 which is an invasion of Right To Privacy.

11:52 IST

Senior SC lawyer Prashant Bhushan says the apex court verdict did not say anything on biometrics for Aadhaar.

11:40 IST

R Chandrasekhar, a petitioner in the Right to Privacy case says, "As the world moves towards digitisation citizens must have rights against misuse of information."

11:39 IST

Congress hails the historic verdict, says "Liberty wins in SC's landmark judgement. Modi Govt's attempt to dismantle #RightToPrivacy overruled!"

11:14 IST

The 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".

11:02 IST

Congress leader P Chidambaram hails SC judgement, says "Privacy is a fundamental right. The freedom that was won in 1947 has been enriched and enlarged."

"Privacy is the core of personal liberty. Article 21 has acquired a new magnificence," Chidambaram tweets.

10:47 IST

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy welcomes the SC judgment.

He tweets: "Welcome the SC judgment that Right to Privacy is a fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Now onto Aadhar modification."

10:43 IST

All judges first sign a judgement document.

All nine judges ruled that Privacy is a part of fundament right, overruling the 1962 and 1954 rulings of the top court.

10:43 IST

All judges first sign a judgement document.

All nine judges ruled that Privacy is a part of fundament right, overruling the 1962 and 1954 rulings of the top court.

10:43 IST

All judges first sign a judgement document.

All nine judges ruled that Privacy is a part of fundament right, overruling the 1962 and 1954 rulings of the top court.

10:41 IST

CJI JS Khehar says privacy is protected under Article 21 and Part 3.

09:52 IST

The high-voltage hearing over a period of three weeks witnessed several senior lawyers, including Attorney General K K Venugopal, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Arvind Datar, Kapil Sibal, Gopal Subaramaniam, Shyam Divan, Anand Grover, C A Sundaram and Rakesh Dwivedi, arguments either in favour or against the inclusion of right to privacy as a fundamental right.

09:22 IST

The Constitution bench will soon start delivering the Right to Privacy verdict at 10:30 am. The nine-judge bench will read out six judgments and the majority ruling will decide the verdict.

09:00 IST

On July 7, a three-judge SC bench hearing a plea on Aadhaar decided that all the issues should finally be decided by a larger bench.

CJI Khehar then set up a five-judge constitution bench to hear the matter. However, on July 18, the five-judge constitution bench decided to set up a nine-judge bench to hear whether the right to privacy can be declared a fundamental right protected under the Constitution.

The nine-judge bench started examining the correctness of two top court judgements delivered in the cases of Kharak Singh and MP Sharma, decided by six and eight judge benches respectively. The judgements held - privacy is not a fundamental right. The Kharak Singh judgement was delivered in 1960 while the MP Sharma verdict was reported in 1950.

08:55 IST

The constitution bench on August 2 reserved its verdict after hearing marathon arguments for six days over a period of three weeks.

08:50 IST

According to sources, six judgements could be issued by the bench today.

08:49 IST

The nine-judge constitution is headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar. The other judges are Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, SK Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.