Justice KS Puttaswamy, petitioner in right to privacy case, passes away at 98

Over seven years after the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, declared privacy to be a fundamental right, Justice KS Puttaswamy, a key petitioner.

In the ‘right to privacy’ matter and a former judge at the Karnataka high court, passed away at the age of 98 on Monday. Justice Puttaswamy, who was born in February 1926 in Karnataka’s Kolar, enrolled as an advocate in 1952 and became a judge in the state’s high court in 1977. He served there till his retirement in 1986, following which he was appointed as the first vice chairperson of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Bengaluru.

He also helmed the Backward Classes Commission of Andhra Pradesh.

The ‘right to privacy’ case
In 2012, Justice Puttaswamy moved Supreme Court against the Aadhaar scheme of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. However, in 2015, the Supreme Court, as a part of his petition against Aadhaar, decided to consider the larger issue of whether citizens have a fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution of India.

By this time, the BJP-led NDA was governing the country (UPA was voted out in 2014) and the government’s stand was that privacy was not a fundamental right. Finally, on August 24, 2017, a nine-judge Constitution bench led by then Chief Justice JS Khehar, upheld the Aadhaar scheme. However, it unanimously recognised privacy as a fundamental right.

The following day, Justice Puttaswamy called the verdict ‘correct and beneficial.’

“I expected a fair-minded judgment, particularly because the attorney general first argued privacy was not a fundamental right but then came around to the point that it was. The possibility of the court accepting the right to privacy.