Retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, Justice K S Puttaswamy, one of the first petitioners who challenged the legality of Aadhaar, welcomed the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court on Wednesday upheld the validity of Aadhaar but restricted it to disbursement of social benefits. The DH reached out to Justice Puttaswamy over the phone. However, he could not speak due to age-related concerns. B P Sreenivas, son of the 92-year-old retired Justice, helped to bridge the gap.
"The decision is favourable for the common man with regard to the opening of bank accounts and for availing telephone services. My father has welcomed it. However, he is waiting to read the complete judgement and will give his response after reading the full judgement," Sreenivas said.
The retired justice was one of the first petitioners to challenge the validity of Aadhaar in the Supreme Court in 2012. Then 87, Justice Puttaswamy had contended that making Aadhaar mandatory for citizens to avail government services was an infringement of their fundamental rights.
Following this, several petitions challenging the Aadhaar were filed before the apex court that bunched them together.
Born in 1926 in Kolar, Justice Puttaswamy studied at the Maharaja College in Mysore and obtained his law degree from the Government Law College, Bangalore. He enrolled as a lawyer in 1952 and was appointed as a Judge to the Karnataka High Court in 1977.
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