NEW DELHI: Right to privacy cannot be an absolute right and the State may have some power to put reasonable restriction, the Supreme Court said today while examining the issue whether it can be declared as a fundamental right under the Constitution.
A nine-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, also asked the Centre and others to assist it about the “contours” and ambit of test on which the width and scope of right to privacy and its infringement, if any, by the State would be tested.
The bench then referred to the apex court judgement, criminalising gay sex and said if right to privacy was construed in its widest sense, then the verdict in the Naz Foundation case “would become vulnerable”.
The NGO, Naz Foundation, has been fighting a legal battle for decriminalising consensual unnatural sex including lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.
During the day-long hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer, said, “Right to privacy is an amorphous right and not absolute. It is only a small sub-sect of liberty.” (AGENCIES)
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