India’s Supreme Court says privacy is a fundamental right in blow to government

via washingtonpost.com - NEW DELHI — In a blow to the Indian government’s efforts to roll out the world’s biggest biometric database on its billion citizens, India’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that privacy was a fundamental right for people.

Over the past few years, the government has aggressively pushed to compile the database, known as Aadhar, by sending officials out to remote villages to take iris scans and fingerprints. To ensure complete enrollment, the government this year put out several notices restricting access to essential government services for those not part of the system.

The unanimous ruling by the nine-judge bench will have huge implications in a number of ongoing cases involving Aadhar, which means base or foundation in Hindi.

It could put an end to the government’s efforts of making enrollment mandatory. It also guarantees privacy for Indian citizens as an intrinsic right — removing it could have had far reaching implications beyond biometric IDs for the daily lives of Indians such as the possible decriminalization of homosexuality.

Though the full implications of the ruling will only be understood after further decisions from the court, activists say the court’s message to the government is loud and clear: “This judgment says that the people of this country have rights, in case you’ve forgotten,” said Usha Ramanathan, an independent law researcher and activist speaking over the phone.

With the right to privacy now guaranteed, opponents of Aadhar expect favorable rulings on petitions against the governments efforts to make enrollment mandatory.

The government says that Aadhar is crucial for better governance and can save Indian taxpayers billions of rupees by reducing welfare and tax fraud. In court, government lawyers argued that the right of all citizens to a dignified life was more important than the elitist preoccupation with privacy.