Justice Puttaswamy, lead petitioner in Right to privacy, Aadhaar judgment, passes away

NEW DELHI: Justice K S Puttaswamy, one of the lead petitioners, who challenged the Aadhaar scheme, resulting into pathbreaking right to privacy judgment in 2017, passed away on Monday.

He was 98.

According to reports, he breathed his last at his residence in Bengaluru.

He suffered from age related ailments.

Even though the apex court had upheld validity of the Aadhaar scheme, it recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution and as the constitutional core of human dignity.

Justice Puttaswamy's initiative in filing the petition was seen as his commitment to upholding constitutional rights and civil liberties, which impacted millions of citizens and ultimately set a precedent in privacy law by the nine-judge Constitution bench.

He filed his plea in 2012 at the age of 86 years and five years later in August 2017, in a landmark verdict, a nine-judge bench of the top court unanimously held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.

Puttaswamy was born on February 8, 1926, and studied at Maharaja's College, Mysore. He obtained his law degree from Government Law College in Bengaluru.

He was enrolled as an advocate in January 1952 and went on to become the Karnataka High Court judge on November 28, 1977. He retired in 1986.

After his retirement, he also served as the vice chairperson of the Central Administrative Tribunal in Bengaluru.

He would always be remembered for being a key architect of the right to privacy in the country. His contribution in developing the constitutional law would always be seen as the leading light in annals of judicial history.