 "Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad during a press conference on Supreme Court's ruling holding privacy as a Fundamental Right, at Shastri Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: PTI")
Govt was of the view that #RightToPrivacy should be a fundamental right.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) August 24, 2017
We welcome the verdict of the Supreme Court on #RightToPrivacy.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) August 24, 2017
Addressing a press conference, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "The government welcomes this judgement. The government has been consistently of the view particularly which refers to Aadhar. The Right to Privacy should be a fundamental right and it should be subject to the reasonable restrictions."
Supreme Court has said that #RightToPrivacy is not absolute and is subject to reasonable restrictions.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) August 24, 2017
In a scathing attack on the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Prasad said that Aadhar back then had no protection of law.
"The Aadhar during the UPA regime had no protection of law. How could the government collect data or insist upon biometrics without any legislative sanction? We made the Aadhar law and provided a legal framework for protection of its data," Prasad said.
#Aadhaar during UPA regime had no protection of law.We made Aadhaar law & provided legal framework for protection its data. #RightToPrivacy
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) August 24, 2017
The Union Law Minister further averred that the essence of Supreme Court judgement is a wider affirmation of the observation made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha.
"The Aadhar system operates on the principle of Minimum Information, Maximum Use. The Aadhar has shown its utility in a very short span of time. It is completely safe and secure," he added.
Earlier in the day, the nine-judge Constitution bench of the apex court overruled the M.P. Sharma (1962) and Kharak Singh (1954) judgement and gave the verdict that privacy was a fundamental right of a citizen.
A five-judge constitutional bench is to decide whether the Aadhar violates the Right to Privacy or not.
On July 26, the Centre had told the apex court that there is a fundamental right to privacy, which is a 'wholly qualified right' too, and in special circumstances, the government can interfere in a matter that comes under a wholly qualified right. An absolute right cannot be reduced or amended.
