Adieu Justice Puttaswamy, the man who ensured right to privacy for us all

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (retd), the lead petitioner in the 'right to privacy' case against the Central government's Aadhaar scheme, which led to the Supreme Court recognising right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21, has passed away at the age of 98. The former Karnataka High Court judge breathed his last in his home in Bengaluru.

Justice Puttaswamy was born in 1926 in Karnataka, studied in Maharaja’s College, Mysuru, and later in Government Law College, Bengaluru. In 1952, he enrolled as an advocate at Mysuru High Court (later Karnataka High Court), and was appointed additional government advocate on 28 November 1977 until his retirement in 1986.

In the year of his retirement, he was the first vice-chairman of the Bengaluru bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal and the chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Commission.

In 2012, at the age of 86, Justice Puttaswamy was the first litigant to challenge the UPA government's Aadhaar scheme. He questioned the constitutional validity of the scheme, saying it infringed upon citizens' privacy. The Supreme Court in 2015 looked into whether the right to privacy (not backed by a defined law yet) exists in India.

Justice Puttaswamy's petition resulted in a landmark judgement in which the SC held that right to privacy falls under the category of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, though the court did not strike down the Aadhaar scheme.

In August 2017, a nine-judge bench unanimously recognised the fundamental right to privacy in the case of Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India.

In an interview with the Indian Express, he had said, “During discussions with some of my friends, I realised that the Aadhaar scheme was going to be implemented without the law being discussed in Parliament. As a former judge, I felt the executive action was not right. I filed the petition because I felt that my right was affected,” he said.

He was against the linking of state benefits to the UID scheme and said much money has been wasted on the "dangerous" project.