Puttaswamy, explained: how nine judges made privacy a fundamental right

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India began as a challenge to the Aadhaar scheme. Before the court could decide Aadhaar, it had to answer a deeper question: does the Constitution protect privacy at all?

The question

Two older decisions, M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962), had suggested there was no fundamental right to privacy. A nine-judge bench was constituted to settle it.

The answer

Unanimously, the bench held that privacy is intrinsic to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and is protected across Part III. Any intrusion must meet a test of legality, legitimate aim and proportionality.

"Privacy is not surrendered merely because the individual is in the public sphere."

Why it still matters

• It shaped the later Aadhaar judgment (2018).
• It informed the decriminalisation of Section 377 in Navtej Johar.
• It underpins debates on surveillance and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.