Privacy verdict to have 'some bearing' in beef matters: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: What a person eats is a very personal affair and is a key facet of privacy, the Supreme Court has ruled. “What one eats is one's personal affair and it is a part of his right to privacy which is included in Article 21 of our Constitution…,” Justice DY Chandrachud said quoting an earlier judgment.

He was referring to the Hinsa Virodhi Sangh case. That case related to a nine-day meat ban slapped by Ahmedabad civic authorities during a Jain festival. The court had then held that choice of food was a personal choice and a part of a person’s privacy. But it had upheld the short ban saying it was a reasonable restriction.

A complete ban would fall short of the reasonable restriction test, that bench had held.

Justice Chandrachud wrote for Chief Justice JS Khehar , Justices R.K. Agrawal, and Abdul Nazeer in the right to privacy ruling.

In a separate judgement, Justice Chelameswar shared these views. “I do not think that anybody would like to be told by the state as to what they should eat or how they should dress or whom they should be associated with either in their personal, social or political life.

“I do not think that anybody in this country would like to have the officers of the state intruding into their homes or private property at will or soldiers quartered in their houses without their consent,” he said.