Privacy can't be fundamental right, says Centre

New Delhi: Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on Thursday asserted in the Supreme Court that “informational privacy” can never be a fundamental right.

The AG made this submission before a nine-judge Constitution bench hearing the issue whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not. When the court told the AG that America lagged behind Europe in protecting informational privacy, the AG said the right to privacy could not be determined without taking into account cultural and environmental norms, which he held the US courts had done, and that India should not imitate foreign jurisprudence.