Aadhaar hearing in Supreme Court: 9 judge Constitution bench to decide whether linking of PAN with Aadhaar breaches privacy

The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred Aadhaar matter to a nine judge Constitution bench to decide whether linking of Pan card with Aadhaar breaches an individual's privacy or not.

Earlier, the Supreme Court said that a five-judge Constitution bench would hear matters related to the Aadhaar on 18 and 19 July. However, today the apex court decided that the matter would be under a nine judge bench now.

Attorney General K K Venugopal and senior advocate Shyam Divan is making the case for petitions that have challenged Modi led government's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for various public welfare schemes.

It was in August 2015 that the Supreme Court (SC) referred to a Constitution Bench a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's ambitious scheme to provide Aadhaar card to all citizens and decide whether right to privacy is a fundamental right.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, had said that the matter requires elaborate debate and an authoritative pronouncement in view of the fact that there have been inconsistent decisions as to whether right to privacy is a fundamental right.

He had cited two judgements, pronounced by six and eight- judge benches, which had held that right to privacy is not a fundamental right.

Subsequently, smaller benches had held contrary view and, hence this matter needed to be decided by a larger bench, the attorney general had said.