SC: Right to Privacy is Fundamental Right

Today, Supreme Court unanimously pronounced that the Right to Privacy is an unenumerated Fundamental Right embedded in Article 21 and other fundamental freedoms contained in Part III of the Constitution of India, furthermore, SC overruled the verdicts passed in M.P Sharma and Kharak Singh, whereby the court ruled against the existence of privacy as fundamental right.
Apart from the aforesaid, Supreme Court also ceremoniously overruled the ADM Jabalpur’s majority view and upheld the minority view although the same had been implicitly countermand by 44th constitutional amendment. Moreover, through today’s pronouncement SC deprecate it’s finding and decision in Suresh Koushal’s judgment in which SC upheld the constitutionality of Section 377 IPC.
As no right can be absolute in nature, therefore Supreme Court stipulate two limitations on the newly recognized right by which it can be restricted, firstly, a just, fair and reasonable basis as per Article 21; Secondly, the amorphous standard of ‘compelling state interest’, though SC elucidates that only in privacy claims which deserve the strictest scrutiny is the standard of compelling State interest to be used. As for others, the just, fair and reasonable standard under Article 21 will apply.
This landmark judgment was pronounced by 9 judge bench comprised of Chief Justice Khehar and Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, R.K. Agrawal, Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Sapre, D.Y. Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S. Abdul Nazeer.