Why in the News?

Justice K S Puttaswamy, former Karnataka High Court judge and petitioner in India’s landmark ‘right to privacy case’, passed away at 98. Born in 1926 near Bengaluru, he served as a judge, later challenging the Aadhaar scheme in 2012. This led to a historic decision on 24^th August 2017 where a nine-judge bench unanimously recognized the fundamental right to privacy in the case of Justice K S Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India.

Right to Privacy

• It is a part of fundamental rights which can be traced to Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
• It is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.
• It covers at least three aspects -
  • Intrusion with an individual’s physical body,
  • Informational privacy
  • Privacy of choice
• Initiated by Justice K S Puttaswamy, the case challenged the Aadhaar scheme's potential infringement on individual privacy, sparking nationwide debates on personal data rights and state surveillance.
• Acknowledging the importance of privacy, the Government has presented the personal Data Protection Bill 2019 in Parliament.