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Which programme was under challenge in the litigation that led to the Supreme Court’s nine-judge ruling on the constitutional right to privacy on 24 August 2017?

Question and options

Which programme was under challenge in the litigation that led to the Supreme Court’s nine-judge ruling on the constitutional right to privacy on 24 August 2017?

  1. The Central Monitoring System for telephone interception

  2. The NATGRID intelligence database programme

  3. The National Population Register enumeration programme

  4. The Aadhaar biometric identification programme

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D - The Aadhaar biometric identification programme

The nine-judge reference in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India arose in petitions challenging the Aadhaar biometric identification programme, in which the Union argued that the Constitution guarantees no right to privacy. The Court held on 24 August 2017 that privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of life and personal liberty under Article 21 and by other Part III freedoms. The validity of Aadhaar itself was decided later, in 2018, by a five-judge bench; no telephone-interception, intelligence-database or population-register programme was the subject of that litigation.

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