Privacy a fundamental right, but it is wholly qualified one: Centre to SC

New Delhi: Centre on Wednesday said in Supreme Court that right to privacy may be considered a fundamental right, but all aspects of privacy cannot be put under the fundamental rights category.

AG K.K. Venugopal told SC that right to privacy is a fundamental right but it is a wholly qualified right.

"Every aspect of it does not qualify as a fundamental right, as privacy also includes the subtext of liberty," said the centre's lawyer KK Venugopal.

The Supreme Court set up a nine-judge bench last week to decide whether right to privacy can be declared as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution.

SC said that right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the state may have some power to put reasonable restriction, while examining the issue whether it can be declared as a fundamental right under the Constitution.

A nine-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, also asked the Centre and others to assist it about the "contours" and ambit of test on which the width and scope of right to privacy and its infringement, if any, by the State would be tested.

The Supreme Court left it to its Constitution Bench to deal with the apprehension of a ‘large section of the population’ that sharing of biometric data under the Aadhaar scheme invades upon human dignity and the ‘right to privacy’.