Supreme Court hearing Aadhaar petitions.

New Delhi: Arguments on whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right are, at the time of writing this piece, being heard by a nine-judge Constitution bench in the Supreme Court. The outcome of this all important case will be binding for a long time to come. So what happens if privacy is not recognised as a fundamental right?

To understand this, one needs to look at the right to privacy arguments in the present. The violation of the right to privacy comprises the majority of the arguments against Aadhaar, against WhatsApp’s privacy policy, and Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, among others. With this right now in question before the Supreme Court, a ruling that there is no constitutionally recognised right to privacy will leave very few alternatives for protection.