Right to privacy not fundamental right, Centre tells SC

NEW DELHI: The Centre today told the Supreme Court since privacy was multifaceted, it could not be treated as a fundamental right.

Attorney General K K Venugopal resumed his arguments before a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, stressing that it was not a fundamental right.

"There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet can't be ipso facto considered a fundamental right,"

Venugopal told the bench, which also comprised Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

He said "informational privacy" could not be a right to privacy and it could not ever be a fundamental right.The Attorney General had yesterday told the bench the right to privacy could be a fundamental right, but could not be "absolute".

The apex court had earlier observed the State could seek information such as details on the number of children a woman had, but but at the same time could not force her to answer a question on how many abortions she'd had.

The court had asked the AG the difference between the right to privacy being considered a common law right and a fundamental right.The apex court had on July 18 set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench by a five-judge bench.

The petitions had claimed the collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the Aadhaar scheme, was a breach of the "fundamental" right to privacy.

The Centre had on July 19 submitted in the apex court that the Right to Privacy could not fall in the bracket of fundamental rights as there were binding decisions of larger benches that it was a common law right evolved through judicial pronouncements.