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Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors.

Constitution of India, Art. 32 — Writ petition — Question whether there is any fundamental right of privacy under Indian Constitution — In its earlier decisions, Apex Court held that there is no such fundamental right — Matter therefore placed before nine-Judge Constitution Bench
                                                                                                      (Para 2)

(Jagdish Singh Khehar, C.J. and J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud and S. Abdul Nazeer, JJ.)

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) and Anr. _______________ Petitioner(s)

v.

Union of India and Ors. ___________________________ Respondent(s)

Writ Petition (C) No. 494 of 2012, decided on July 18, 2017

With

Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 144/2014 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012, W.P.(C) No. 220/2015, T.P.(C) No. 313/2014, T.P.(C) No. 312/2014, SLP(Crl) No. 2524/2014, Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 844/2017 in W.P.(C) No. 494/2012, Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 674/2015 in W.P.(C) No. 829/2013, T.P.(C) No. 921/2015, Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 470/2015 in W.P.(C) No. 494/2012, Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 444/2016 in W.P.(C) No. 494/2012, W.P.(C) No. 833/2013, Conmt. Pet.(C) No. 608/2016 in W.P.(C) No. 494/2012, W.P.(C) No. 797/2016, W.P.(C) No. 829/2013, T.P.(C) No. 1797/2013, W.P.(C) No. 932/2013, W.P.(C) No. 37/2015, T.C.(C) No. 151/2013, T.C.(C) No. 152/2013, T.P.(C) No. 1796/2013 and W.P.(C) No. 372/2017

The Order of the court was delivered by

Order

1. During the course of the hearing today, it seems that it has become essential for us to determine whether there is any fundamental right of privacy under the Indian Constitution. The determination of this question would essentially entail whether the decision recorded by this Court in M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra, District Magistrate, Delhi – 1950 SCR 1077 by an eight-Judge Constitution Bench, and also, in Kharak Singh v. The State of U.P. – 1962 (1) SCR 332 by a six-Judge Constitution Bench, that there is no such fundamental right, is the correct expression of the constitutional position.

2. Before dealing with the matter any further, we are of the view that the issue noticed hereinabove deserves to be placed before the nine-Judge Constitution Bench. List these matters before the Nine-Judge Constitution Bench on 19.07.2017.

3. Liberty is granted to the learned counsel appearing for the rival parties to submit their written briefs in the meantime.

Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s).494/2012

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) and Anr ________________ Petitioner(s)

v.

Union of India and Ors ____________________________ Respondent(s)

WITH CONMT. PET.(C) No. 144/2014 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012 (PIL-W)

W.P.(C) No. 220/2015 (PIL-W)

T.P.(C) No. 313/2014 (XVI-A)

T.P.(C) No. 312/2014 (XVI-A)

SLP(Crl) No. 2524/2014 (II-A)

CONMT. PET.(C) No. 844/2017 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012 (PIL-W)

CONMT. PET.(C) No. 674/2015 In W.P.(C) No. 829/2013 (PIL-W)

T.P.(C) No. 921/2015 (XVI-A)

CONMT. PET.(C) No. 470/2015 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012 (PIL-W)

CONMT. PET.(C) No. 444/2016 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012 (PIL-W)

W.P.(C) No. 833/2013 (PIL-W)

CONMT. PET.(C) No. 608/2016 In W.P.(C) No. 494/2012 (PIL-W)

W.P.(C) No. 797/2016 (PIL-W)

(FOR [PERMISSION TO FILE ANNEXURES] ON IA 4/2016

FOR [DIRECTIONS] ON IA 5/2017 FOR STAY APPLICATION ON IA 6/2017)

W.P.(C) No. 829/2013 (PIL-W)

T.P.(C) No. 1797/2013 (XVI-A)

W.P.(C) No. 932/2013 (PIL-W)

W.P.(C) No. 37/2015 (PIL-W)

T.C.(C) No. 151/2013 (XVI-A)

T.C.(C) No. 152/2013 (XVI-A)

T.P.(C) No. 1796/2013 (XVI-A)

W.P.(C) No. 372/2017 (X)

Date : 18-07-2017 This petition was called on for hearing today.

(Before Jagdish Singh Khehar, C.J. and J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud and S. Abdul Nazeer, JJ.)

Counsel for the parties

Mr. Shyam Divan, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Vipin Nair, AOR

Mr. P.B. Suresh, Adv.

Mr. Udayaditya Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. S. Prasanna, Adv.

Ms. Samiksha Godiyal, Adv.

Mr. Abhay Pratap Singh, Adv.

Mr. Govind Manoharan, Adv.

Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, AOR

M/s. K.J. John And Co, AOR

Mr. J.M. Kalia, Adv.

Mr. D. S. Mahra, AOR

Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR

Ms. Neha Rathi, Adv.

Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv.

Dr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR

Mr. Ravindra Lokhande, Adv.

Mr. Shadan Farasat, AOR

Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR

Mr. Anish Kumar Gupta, AOR

Mr. Chandra Shekhar Suman, Adv.

Mr. R.K. Rajwanshi, Adv.

Mrs. Rita Gupta, Adv.

Ms. Priyanka Parida, Adv.

Ms. Deepshikha Bharati, Adv.

Mr. Lalit Bhasin, Adv.

Ms. Nina Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Mudit Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Gopal Subramanian, Sr. Adv.

Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, AOR

Mr. Talha Abdul Rehman, Adv.

Mr. Jaideep Singh, Adv.

Mr. Ankur Kashyap, Adv.

Mr. Prateek Chadha, Adv.

Ms. Radhika Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Aravind Datar, Sr. Adv.

Ms. Geetha Kovilan, AOR

Mr. P.R. Kovilan, Adv.

Mr. M.K. Aswathi, Adv.

Mr. Rahul Narayan, AOR

Mr. Pranaya Kumar Mohapatra, AOR

Mr. Chitta Ranjan Mishra, Adv.

Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singh, Adv.

Mr. D.P. Singh Yadav, Adv.

Mr. K.K. Venugopal, AG

Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG

Mr. Zoheb Hossain, AOR

Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv.

Mr. Ankur Talwar, Adv.

Ms. Shraddha, Adv.

Mr. Acharya Sengupta, Adv.

Ms. Devika, Adv.

Mr. Sajan Poovayya, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Priyadarshi Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. Pratibhanu S. Kharola, Adv.

For Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR

Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR

Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR

Ms. Vimla Sinha, Adv.

Mr. Rituraj Biswas, Adv.

Mr. Amit Sharma, AOR

Mr. Dinkar Kalra, AOR

Mr. Jayant Bhushan, Sr. Adv.

Mr. H. S. Parihar, AOR

Mr. K.S. Parihar, Adv.

Mr. K. Ramamoorthy, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Dipak K. Nag, Adv.

Mr. Sanjiv Das, Adv.

Mr. Parmanand Gaur, Adv.

Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Soumitra G. Chaudhuri, Adv.

Mr. Chanchal K. Ganguli, Adv.

Mr. Mohit D. Ram, AOR

Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR

Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR

Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Adv.

Ms. Savita Singh, AOR

Mr. Jayant Mohan, AOR

Mr. Sanjay Kapur, AOR

Ms. Megha Karnwal, Adv.

Ms. Mansi Kapur, Adv.

Ms. Shubhra Kapur, Adv.

Mr. C.A. Sundaram, Adv.

Mr. Nishant Ramakantrao Katneshwarkar, AOR

Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR

Mr. T. G. Narayanan Nair, AOR

Mr./Ms. Nitya Madhusoodhanan, Adv.

Mr. V. G. Pragasam, AOR

Mr. Prabhu Ramasubramanian, Adv.

Mr. Jagjit Singh Chhabra, AOR

Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, AOR

Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Abhinav Mukerji, AOR

Mr. Mishra Saurabh, AOR

Mr. Manish Vashishtha, AOR

Mr. Sanjay Kumar Visen, AOR

Mr. Anil Grover, AAG

Mr. Mishal Vij, Adv.

Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, AAG

Mr. Lalit Mohapatra, Adv.

Ms. Ruchi Kohli, AOR

Mr. S. Mukerjee, Adv.

Mr. Manoj K. Mishra, AOR

Mr. Umesh Dubey, Adv.

Ms. Aruna Mathur, Adv.

Mr. Avneesh Arputham, Adv.

Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Adv.

Mr. Amit Arora, Adv.

For M/s. Arputham Aruna & Co, AOR

Mr. J.S. Attri, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR

Mr. Chandra Nand Jha, Adv.

M/s. Corporate Law Group, AOR

Mr. Jugal Kishore Gilda, AG

Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR

Mr. Charudatta Mahindrakar, Adv.

Mr. A. Selvin Raja, Adv.

Mr. A.M. Oza, Adv.

Mr. Chirag Jain, Adv.

Mr. Garvesh Kabra, AOR

Mr. Arjun Khera, Adv.

Mr. Sahil Khanna, Adv.

Mr. Harish Pandey, AOR

Mr. R. Sudhinder, Adv.

Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR

Ms. Amrita Sarkar, Adv.

Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR

Mr. Anip Sachthey, AOR

Mr. Rakesh Diwedi, Sr. Adv.

Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR

Ms. Jesal Wahi, Adv.

Ms. Shodhika Sharma, Adv.

Mr. Anand Grover, Sr. Adv.

Mr. Prasanna S., Adv.

Ms. Pripti Tandon, Adv.

Ms. Lorainne Misquita, Adv.

Mr. Suraj Sanap, Adv.

Ms. Priyam Cheriyan, Adv.

Ms. Srinidih Rao, Adv.

Mr. Vijayant Singh, Adv.

Mr. Apar Gupta, Adv.

Mr. Nipun Saxena, Adv.

Mr. Anando Mukherjee, Adv.

Ms. Anitha Shenoy, AOR

Applicant-in-person, AOR

Mr. Jogy Scaria, AOR

Mr. Wills Mathews, Adv.

For Mr. Rabin Majumder, AOR

Mr. Sapam Biswajit Meitei, Adv.

Mr. Naresh Kumar Gaur, Adv.

Mr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Adv.

Mr. K.V. Jagdishvaran, Adv.

Mrs. G. Indira, Adv.

Mr. C.D. Singh, AAG

Ms. Shivali Chaudhary, Adv.

Ms. Sakshi Kakar, Adv.

Mr. Joseph Aristotle S., Adv.

Mrs. Priya Aristotle, Adv.

Mr. Ashish Yadav, Adv.

Ms. Romsha Raj, Adv.

Mr. Tapesh K. Singh, Adv.

Mr. Mohd. Waques, Adv.

Ms. Tannishtha Singh, Adv.

Ms. Ayushi Gupta, Adv.

For M/s. Meharia & Company, AOR

Mr. M. Shoeb Alam, Adv.

Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Adv.

Mr. Ujjwal Singh, Adv.

Mr. Mojahid Karim Khan, Adv.

Mr. Julien George, Adv.

Mr. Arjun Ranganathan, Adv.

Mr. Yatin Garg, Adv.

Mr. Nikhil Nayyar, Adv.

Mr. Karan Bharihoke, Adv.

Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, Adv.

Mr. Anu K. Joy, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

Order

4. List these matters before the Nine-Judge Constitution Bench on 19.07.2017, in terms of the signed order.

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