Supreme Court verdict on Right to Privacy LIVE: 9-judge bench to rule today

Is individual privacy a fundamental Constitutional right? In a few moments, a nine-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench, headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, will revisit a 55-year-old verdict that states privacy is not a basic right for citizens. The judgement will have an impact on several other verdicts including validity of Aadhaar scheme, WhatsApp’s new privacy and Section 377 which criminalises gay sex. The ruling is expected to be delivered at 10.30 am.
On July 7, a three-judge SC bench hearing a plea on Aadhaar decided that all the issues should finally be decided by a larger bench.
CJI Khehar then set up a five-judge constitution bench to hear the matter. However, on July 18, the five-judge constitution bench decided to set up a nine-judge bench to hear whether the right to privacy can be declared a fundamental right protected under the Constitution.
The nine-judge bench started examining the correctness of two top court judgements delivered in the cases of Kharak Singh and MP Sharma, decided by six and eight judge benches respectively. The judgements held – privacy is not a fundamental right. The Kharak Singh judgement was delivered in 1960 while the MP Sharma verdict was reported in 1950.