There is no fundamental right to privacy, the Government of India represented by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi repeatedly told the three judge bench of the Supreme Court of India. The bench comprised Justices Bobde, Chelameswar and Nagappan yesterday. The court is hearing a case challenging Aadhaar, the unique identity project, on the grounds of right to privacy. The hearings on the issue whether or not there is a fundamental right to privacy in India have been ongoing for a while, and yesterday, Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for one of the petitioners, finished his arguments, saying that there was such a right in the constitution. The Attorney General was responding to these arguments. Non-Mandatory Aadhaar made mandatory At the beginning of the proceedings, Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for one of the petitioners, pointed out instances of people who have been denied their rights for the absence of an Aadhaar number, thereby indicating that the Aadhaar card was being deemed mandatory, in violation of the bench saying that the Aadhaar number is not mandatory, and that "No person should be denied any benefits or 'suffer' for not having the Aadhaar cards issued by Unique Identification Authority of India". More on that here. The petitioners shared affidavits of instances where citizens had been denied their rights: among them, an instance of a non-processing of a scholarship for a poor person, another of an individual denied a voters identity card for the lack of an Aadhaar card, and another of bank accounts not being allowed without Aadhaar.…
