The apex court ruling is significant in view of the fact that a new data protection law is under preparation. The apex court’s five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra discussed at length the contours of the right to privacy in the context of Aadhaar, and addressed some of the fears around privacy protection. This goes to show that the government and the court are on the same page in the evolving jurisprudence relating to privacy protection. To a large extent, the court has accepted the government’s take on what constitutes privacy protection in case of a biometric-based identification project such as Aadhaar. Puttaswamy versus Union of India landmark judgement, which pronounced privacy as a fundamental right, to test the Aadhaar architecture against it.

Source: Mint September 26, 2018 16:41 UTC