Justice KS PUTTASWAMY Passes Away - The Man behind the Privacy revolution in India
Former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, known for his landmark judgment of ‘Right to privacy’ passes away at the age of 98 in his Bangalore residence.
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About Him
He was born on February 8, 1926 in Kolar district in Karnataka. He began his career in the legal field as an advocate in 1952 and later served as an Additional Government Advocate in the high court.
He became Judge of Karnataka High court and started his judicial career in 1977. He retired from his role of judge in 1986 and was appointed as the Vice chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Bangalore bench and continued with various roles like Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Administrative tribunal and chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Commission for Backward Classes.
Landmark Case - Right to Privacy
He is known for challenging the Constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Scheme by filing a petition before the Supreme court in 2012. The Aadhaar Scheme was introduced by the then UPA government.
By this scheme, every Indian citizen would get a 12 digit unique identity but when the Aadhaar card was issued for the first time in 2010, it was done by an executive order not with any legislative backing. To get such a card, a citizen must submit their biometric data which includes fingerprint, retina scan and then a card is issued, the responsibility of storing the data is with UIDAI.
After some time, the government made the use of such cards mandatory for the geeting benefits of various government welfare schemes which includes Mid day meal, MGNREGA. Justice K.S.Puttaswamy challenged such rights before the supreme court where he raised concerns like
- Whether the government has put any adequate safeguard in order to protect this information from any possible violation.
- He asked that the government cannot limit the right to get benefits of such schemes which are itself a fundamental right
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JUDGMENT
On August 11th, 2015, a bench composed of 3 judges - Justice Chelameswar, Bobde and C. Nagappan passed an order that a bench of an appropriate strength should decide whether we have fundamental right to privacy or not.
After passing this order, the petition was referred to 5 judge bench and then to a 9 judge bench. The nine judge bench gave its judgment on 24th August 2017.
A Nine judge bench was constituted in this case because the Attorney General of India had then argued that because larger benches of the court in M.P.Sharma consisting of 8 judge bench and Kharak Singh consisting of 6 judge bench had already refused to accept right to privacy as a part of fundamental rights. Therefore, the case was referred to a nine judge bench to overrule the previous one.
The nine bench judges unanimously delivered a judgment of 547 pages in which they recognised the fundamental right to privacy of every citizen within the meaning of Article 21 which is guaranteed by the Constitution of India. In this case the earlier decision of M.P. Sharma v Satish Chandra, District Magistrate, Delhi and Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh was overruled where the right to privacy was not recognised.
But these cases highlighted the ongoing tension between the state power’s and individual rights and later on this tension was kept in silence by the historic judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) v. Union of India.
The nine judges observed multiple opinions in respect with the right to privacy. Chandrachud J., observed the importance of privacy in the digital economy and the need of the data protection law in this ever growing digital economy. Chelameswar J., observed that right to privacy consist of three facets which are -
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- Repose - Freedom from unwarranted stimuli
- Sanctuary- Protection from intrusive Observation
- Intimate decision - Autonomy or freedom to male personal life decisions
The above three points were also observed by Justice Nariman. However, all these are only observations and do not have any binding force. Only the order which recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right is binding in nature for the subsequent cases because it was sign by all the nine judges in the bench.
Test for infringement of Privacy
Generally, if any fundamental right is violated then the court looks upon the reasonableness of such action. Whether such an act was reasonable on the part of another person or he had any specific interest or reason which extends to violating the right of some other person.
In this case also, the court observed that the requirement of reasonableness is necessary in order to determine whether there is violation of the fundamental right of privacy or not.the action must have some legality, a legitimate goal to be achieved and there should be some connection between the action and the goal it wants to be achieved (rational nexus).
Court also observed that there are different degree of reasonableness which is required in the violation of the fundamental right like-
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- Violation of Privacy under Article 14 - it will bring the state action under the test of ‘reasonableness’
- Violation of Privacy under Article 19 - it will bring the state action under the test of ‘specified restrictions like public order, morality’
- Violation of Privacy under Article 21 - it will bring the state action under the test of ‘just, fair, reasonableness;
If the action violets more than one fundamental right at the same like for example state action of Phone Tapping led to violation freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) and personal liberty under article 21, then in such case, the states action must be justified in both restriction which is given under article 19 and 21 which is the specific restrictions like public order under Article 19(2) and just, fair and reasonableness under article 21.
FAQ
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What was the role of K.S. Puttaswamy in Aadhaar case?
K.S. Puttaswamy was the retired Karnataka High court judge who filed a petition in the Supreme court related to Aadhaar case and contended the possible violation of privacy rights of the citizens because of such cards.
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What was the Aadhaar case about?
The Aadhaar case also known as K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, involved a challenge to the newly made Aadhaar act which requires fingerprint and retinas of people in order to generate a card on his or her name. Puttaswamy in this case argued that such acts on the part of the state lacked adequate safeguard of the personal data.
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What was the Supreme Court ruling in the Aadhaar Case?
On 24th August, 2017, the court unanimously ruled the right to privacy as the fundamental right under Article 21 but it didn’t hold the Aadhaar Act to be unconstitutional.
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What was the Impact of the Puttaswamy judgment on the later cases?
The recognition of the fundamental right led to several landmark judgments in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India and Joseph Sine v. Union of India.
REFERENCES:
- Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India
- Constitutionality of Aadhaar Act
- Analysis of Supreme court’s Privacy Verdict
- K.S. Puttaswamy Passes away
Written by Shalini Singh
Shalini is a law student who is passionate about international law and rights.
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Further Reading
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