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.
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.
Finally, on August 24, 2017, a nine-judge Constitution bench led by then Chief Justice JS Khehar, upheld the Aadhaar scheme [for union govt welfare programs]. However, it unanimously recognised privacy as a fundamental right.
— source hindustantimes.com | Oct 28, 2024