The much-awaited hearing by a Constitution Bench on the validity of Aadhaar scheme will begin on July 18. Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar on Wednesday decided to constitute a five-judge Bench to hear the matter following a joint request for urgent hearing made by Attorney General KK Venugopal and senior advocate Shyam Divan for the petitioners.
The request was made following the suggestion by a three-judge Bench of the apex court which had last week expressed its reservation to decide the challenge to notifications issued by Government making Aadhaar mandatory for several schemes and services unless the validity of Aadhaar itself was determined by a Constitution Bench. On the Bench's suggestion, both AG and Divan agreed to approach the CJI for constituting a Constitution Bench.
The CJI said that a five-judge Bench will sit on Tuesday to hear the petitions challenging Aadhaar, the law passed in this regard and a slew of notifications that made Aadhaar compulsory for Government schemes and services. At first, the five-judge Bench will have to determine whether it can hear the matter or refer the same to a larger bench of nine judges. At the core of the Aadhaar debate rests the question whether citizens have a right to privacy.
The Centre had disputed the same citing an eight-judge Bench decision of apex court (1954 MP Sharma case) who held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right under Constitution. later decisions by the judges sitting in combination of three and five, without discussing the 8-judge decision, held right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21.