Welcome the SC verdict upholding right to privacy as an intrinsic part of individual’s liberty, freedom and dignity. The SC decision marks a major blow to fascist forces, he says on Twitter
While the Opposition parties have hailed the Supreme Court verdict declaring privacy a fundamental right, rights activists have asked for balancing privacy with people’s right to know. Congress president Sonia Gandhi took the lead on Thursday morning, saying the verdict has heralded a new era for individual rights and human dignity. The party vice president Rahul Gandhi said it was a rejection of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideology of suppression through surveillance. ‘Welcome the SC verdict upholding right to privacy as an intrinsic part of individual’s liberty, freedom and dignity. The SC decision marks a major blow to fascist forces,’ he said on Twitter.
Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who briefed press at the party headquarters believed the verdict would rank ‘among the most important judgments delivered by the Supreme Court since the advent of the Constitution of India’. “Privacy is at the core of personal liberty. In fact, privacy is an inalienable part of life itself. By virtue of the judgement, Article 21 has acquired new magnificence,” he told reporters. The former finance minister criticised the government’s approach in its interpretation of Aadhaar under Article 21 — on the protection of life and personal liberty — and alleged its stand was ‘inconsistent’. Chidambaram said there was nothing wrong in distributing Aadhaar cards or in asking citizens to apply for such cards.
Congress’s media department in-charge Randeep Surjewala described the verdict as the ‘dawn of a new freedom’ and a ‘decisive defeat’ for the BJP government. “The Court rejects Modi government’s attempt to whittle down the right to privacy as a fundamental right,” he said. Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said the Court had vindicated ‘constitutional conscience’ and validated yet again its role as ‘the guardian of our constitutional rights’.
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal stressed that the right to privacy is seeded in several articles of Part III of the Constitution and cautioned the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre that it should not in anyway compromise with the privacy of citizens in implementation of the Aadhaar scheme.
“Apart from this, data relating to the individual also needs protection and it is the legitimate expectation of individuals parting with their data to secure that protection. The state needs to frame data protection law to ensure legitimate expectation of individuals,” he said.
Welcoming the judgment, the Communist Party of India-Marxist expressed hope that it would protect the misuse of private data in a world ‘dominated by corporates’. ‘The Politburo welcomes the Supreme Court verdict…this landmark judgment should pave the way to protect, in this world of technology advance dominated by corporates, misuse of private data and infringing upon the privacy of individuals,’ the Left party said in a statement.
RTI activist at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Venkatesh Nayak, however, asked for balancing the privacy with transparency. “Much like the right to privacy, people’s right to know is also an inseparable element of the rights to life and liberty and freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution,” he said. “While celebrating the restoration of clarity vis-à-vis the right to privacy, it is important to ensure that information that is required to be made public under the RTI Act is not restricted by using the Constitution Bench’s findings,” he added.
