New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that privacy is a fundamental right, but a "wholly qualified" one. This led a nine-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar on Wednesday to sum up Attorney General KK Venugopal's submission as thus: "You are saying that right to privacy is a fundamental right. But not every aspect of it (privacy) is a fundamental right. It depends on a case-to-case basis."

Venugopal agreed to court's interpretation of the government stand on privacy. Four non-BJP ruled states on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in the ongoing hearing on the issue of whether the Right to Privacy can be declared as one of the Fundamental Rights under the Constitution. The states are Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherry. They took a stand opposite to the Central government which had said earlier that Right to Privacy is a common law right and not a Fundamental Right.

The hearing is to continue on Thursday.