New Delhi: The Supreme Court today rejected the Centre’s argument that since the right to privacy does not figure among the fundamental rights mentioned in the Constitution, it cannot be a constitutional right.
"To sanctify an argument that whatever is not found in the text of the Constitution cannot become a part of the Constitution would be too primitive an understanding of the Constitution and contrary to settled canons of constitutional interpretation," Justice J. Chelameswar observed in his separate but concurring judgment.
"Such an approach regarding the rights and liberties of citizens would be an affront to the collective wisdom of our people and the wisdom of the members of the Constituent Assembly."
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul explained how citizens had the right to protect their reputations not just against falsehoods but also against "certain truths" about themselves.
"It cannot be said that a more accurate judgment about people can be facilitated by knowing private details about their lives — people judge us badly, they judge us in haste, they judge out of context, they judge without hearing the whole story and they judge with hypocrisy," he said.
Quoting several foreign authors on the right to privacy, Justice Kaul said: "Privacy lets people protect themselves from these troublesome judgments. There is no justification for making all truthful information available to the public.
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