Privacy Is Now a Fundamental Right For All Indians

This article originally appeared on VICE News.

India's Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that privacy is a fundamental right for its citizens in a landmark decision likely to throw a wrench in the country's ambitious bid to have every citizen upload personal data and biometric scans to a massive database.

This historic ruling stems from challenges to India's controversial Aadhaar scheme — a government database that assigns a unique identification number to every Indian. The controversial database stores retina and fingerprint scans that can ultimately be used to track an individual's interactions with the state, from voting to cell phone bills. The government claims the database is necessary to modernize India, but critics argue it encourages countrywide spying and is a major privacy violation.

The court's decision is a "crucial affirmation of civil rights and the distinction between public power and personal liberty," said Madhav Khosla, an Indian constitutional scholar.

During the hearing, the Indian central government argued that individual freedom must come second to development concerns. "The claim to liberty has to subordinate itself to the right of life of others," said Attorney General KK Venugopal.

The Indian government's ambitious scheme will face more upheaval in the months to come, as multiple pending challenges to the Aadhaar database will be heard in light of Thursday's unanimous decision.

The question of privacy as an intrinsic right has been alluded to in a series of contradictory judgements throughout India's legislative history, but Thursday's 547-page ruling settles the issue, establishing a strong constitutional precedent.

India's top court convenes benches of various sizes to hear cases, depending on the importance of the case. The average panel holds two or three judges, but a rare nine-member bench heard this case. "It's hugely important that this case was heard by enough judges to settle the place of privacy under India's constitution," Khosla said. "It sets a strong precedent and means that future judgements will likely follow this path."

Thursday's landmark ruling is also likely to impact other statutes concerning personal autonomy, most notably Section 377, which criminalizes homosexuality. The Court specifically included sexual orientation as an individual liberty, writing that India's democracy "must protect the family, marriage, procreation, and sexual orientation… all important aspects of dignity."