The Supreme Court (Files)
FOLLOWING THE nine-judge Constitution Bench’s ruling that citizens have a fundamental right to privacy, the Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar scheme in the first week of November. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra Wednesday decided to take up the matter in November after the Centre informed the court that it would extend the deadline to furnish Aadhaar, for accessing benefits of various social welfare schemes, to December 31.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior counsel Shyam Divan referred to the privacy judgment and requested the court to give an early hearing. He pointed out that the current deadline would expire on September 30. Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal then said: “We will extend it to December 31.” The bench, which also comprises Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, then said “the urgency is not there… it will be listed in the first week of November”.
In July, a three-judge bench of the court had said all Aadhaar related issues should be decided by a larger bench. The matter was then referred to a five-judge Constitution bench. But this bench noted that the issue of whether citizens have a fundamental right to privacy was yet to be addressed. This issue should be settled before the question of whether Aadhaar violates privacy can be taken up, it said.
Subsequently, a nine-judge Constitution Bench was set up, which ruled last week that citizens have a fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution.
