A 9-judge Bench of the Supreme Court today reserved its judgment in the case on Right to Privacy. The Court heard the matter for six days..The Bench comprised Chief Justice of India, JS Khehar and Justices Jasti Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agarwal, Rohinton Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, SK Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer..On the final day, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi and Advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Arghya Sengupta made submissions..Brief rejoinder arguments were also made by Senior Advocates Gopal Subramanium, Kapil Sibal, Meenakshi Arora, PV Sunrendra Nath, Anand Grover, Sajan Poovayya and Arvind Datar..Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing State of Gujarat, submitted that privacy could have various dimensions and it has to seen in the context and circumstances. He argued that privacy as a whole should not be declared a fundamental right as it can be a very slippery slope. Dwivedi contended that the right cannot be claimed in the abstract but should be based on injury that is likely to be caused..He also urged the need to embrace technological advancements..“Let us not turn our backs to technology. Technology is a great tool for empowerment.”.The arguments also saw considerable interaction between Justice Rohinton Nariman and Dwivedi on the applicability of substantive due process in Indian jurisprudence..After Dwivedi concluded, advocate Gopal Sankaranarayana argued for Centre for Civil Society. He submitted that Kharak Singh and MP Sharma have been correctly decided and it cannot be claimed that the two judgments are incorrect based on the decision in RC Cooper..He, however, argued that Right to Privacy might be required to be elevated as fundamental right though not all aspects of privacy my fall within Part III..After Sankaranarayanan, Argya Sengupta made his submissions on behalf of State of Haryana and TRAI..Sengupta argued that privacy is only a formal construct and a substitute for liberty..“Privacy in jurisprudence is nothing but liberty interest…which type of privacy rights are to be protected is to be determined on a case to case basis; Supreme Court should not read in a general right of privacy as a fundamental right”, he said..On data protection, Sengupta argued that the same is a horizontal issue between individuals and non-State entities and is “very complex”. He, however, did not delve into it in detail..Sengupta’s arguments were followed by rejoinder submissions after which the Court reserved its judgment..Since Chief Justice Khehar would be retiring on August 27, the judgment is expected to be delivered before that..Read Rakesh Dwivedi’s written submissions
