The 71st year of Independence has been dawning on us slowly, as we see lawful changes stemming from all across the board. First it was SC banning the Islamic instant divorce, also known as Talaq-e-biddat, earlier this week and now the SC has declared privacy to be a fundamental right under Article 21, in a landmark judgement!

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So what does that really mean? Do we not have privacy in our personal matters, away from the watchful eyes of the government? Well yes we do but there is always scrutiny at every level that makes us question our laws sometimes. This decision though by the SC is holds a very interesting and holistic debate in hand. While we do have the right to life and privacy as a fundamental right, does making the Aadhaar card mandatory fall under the same purview, since we use our Aadhaar information for any and all government related matters? First let's figure what privacy really means.

Reuters

Privacy here means the basic right people have to make personal decisions regarding intimate matters under the common law. It also denotes that people have the right to live their life as they chose to, without any government or public scrutiny or intrusion. Basically, the right to be left alone! But since the Aadhar dynamics have come into play, we think this fundamental right is a little futile. Here's why. The Aadhar card makes it mandatory for people to share their bio metric details with the big brother aka the government. So all the personal information is automatically saved with the government in case there are leakages in the subsidy schemes they need to catch or to ensure different benefits reaching the right people. The bone of contention though is that the government can use this data in reverse and spy on people instead.

The question is, how much should the state know about its people? Aadhaar has immense potential for surveillance and profiling and it can be anything but private for everyone. The government automatically gets an edge over individualistic privacy and can use the data accordingly. So does Aadhaar really violate the fundamental right to privacy? Well this matter will further be under discussion by a five-judge constitutional bench.

Reuters

Let's just say for now the fundamental right to privacy and life is subject to reasonable restriction and comes with some conditions, we must abide by. Let us know what you think, in the comments!