IA NEWS NETWORK
The Centre today told the Supreme Court that since privacy was multifaceted, it could not be treated as a fundamental right. Attorney General KK Venugopal resumed his arguments before a nine-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar. 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 that the right to privacy could be a fundamental right, but could not be absolute.
The court had asked the AG the difference between the right to privacy being considered a common law right and a fundamental right. He had replied that the common law right could be enforced by filing a civil law suit and if it was considered a fundamental right, the court could enforce it like any other writ.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, while representing four non-BJP ruled States, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherry, had argued that these States supported the contention that the right to privacy be held as fundamental in the age of technological advancements.
The apex court had, earlier this month, set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench by a five-judge bench.
The Centre had, later, 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.