D-Day, Army called out

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 24

The Army was late tonight called out in Panchkula, where a CBI court is set to deliver its verdict in a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh tomorrow at 2.30 pm, even as large parts of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh remained in a virtual lockdown mode. 

In Sirsa too, the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters, the Army was called out to ensure peace. 

Northern Railway has cancelled 29 trains bound for Punjab and Haryana.

Meanwhile, thousands of Premis, as Dera followers are known, continued to flock to Panchkula for a glimpse of their ‘pitaji’ (father), posing a challenge for the security agencies. Estimated at 1.5 lakh, they camped in parks and sat along roads to show solidarity with their icon. 

Late in the night, senior police officials, including DGP BS Sandhu, appealed to the dera followers to vacate the area. The DGP said they were determined to carry out the evacuation process with success. 

Earlier in the day, the inability of the Khattar government in Haryana to stop the massive build-up earned it a rap from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The state police were pulled up too. To check misinformation, mobile Internet services, including 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA and GPRS, SMS and dongle services, except voice calls, have been suspended for 72 hours.

Panchkula’s Sector 1, which houses the CBI special court where the verdict is to be delivered by Judge Jagdeep Singh, has been fortified with a four-tier security. As many as 6,000 personnel are keeping a watch over law and order in the city. Drones have been pressed into service to keep a watch on dera followers and Chaudhary Tau Devi Lal Stadium Complex in Panchkula and Dalbir Singh Indoor Stadium in Sirsa have been turned into ‘special jails’. Sources said senior police officer KK Sharma had been made overall security in-charge. He would be assisted by 10 officers, including two ADGPs. Ten duty magistrates have been stationed in Panchkula, among the 10 districts identified as ‘sensitive’. 

The verdict assumes significance in the age of social media, as individuals can claim constitutional protection for their data. It will also impact the outcome of petitions challenging the WhatsApp privacy policy pending before a five-judge Constitution Bench.

The Bench said life and personal liberty were “inalienable rights”. “Privacy with its attendant values assures dignity to the individual and it is only when life can be enjoyed with dignity can liberty be of true substance. Privacy ensures the fulfilment of dignity and is a core value which the protection of life and liberty is intended to achieve,” the Bench said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The all-important ruling came on petitions filed by former Karnataka High Court Judge KS Puttaswamy, child rights activist Shanta Sinha, former bureaucrat and activist Aruna Roy, former Major General Dr Sudhir G Vombatkere and others who contended that right to privacy was a fundamental right and the Aadhaar scheme violated it.

The nine-judge Constitution Bench specifically overruled two earlier verdicts that said right to privacy was not a fundamental right under the Constitution.

In MP Sharma and others versus Satish Chandra, an eight-judge Constitution Bench had held in 1954 that right to privacy was not a fundamental right. A similar view was taken by a six-judge Bench in 1962 in Kharak Singh versus the State of UP.

It was on the basis of these two judgments that the then Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi had asserted before the top court in 2015 that citizens didn’t have a fundamental right to privacy, inviting criticism from civil society and rights activists.

---

Read more stories

• 15,000 paramilitary personnel deployed in Punjab, Haryana; mobile internet to be suspended 
• Why Dera Sacha Sauda attracts such huge following 
• Premis close shops, start moving towards Sirsa and Panchkula 
• Thousands of Dera followers spend night under open sky 
• Will appear in Panchkula court, says Dera chief 
• HC slams Haryana on law and order, asks Centre to provide forces 
• Chandigarh, Mohali deserted; Panchkula abuzz with activity 

---

But during the hearing, Rohatgi’s successor KK Venugopal had conceded that right to privacy was a fundamental right. He, however, had asserted that it was a qualified right and the government had a right to regulate it through a law.

 

In all there were six separate but concurring verdicts. The CJI, who didn’t write one, pronounced the operative part of the verdict signed by all nine judges in a jam-packed courtroom at 10.39 am. Other judges on the Bench were Justices DY Chandrachud, J Chelameswar, SK Kaul, SA Bobde, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, RK Agarwal and Abdul Nazeer.