Bellur Narayanaswamy Srikrishna

Born in 1941 in Bangalore and raised in Mumbai, Justice Bellur Narayanaswamy Srikrishna acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Science, an LL.B, an LL.M, an M.A. in Sanskrit, a diploma in Urdu and a postgraduate diploma in Indian Aesthetics over the course of his distinguished career. He entered private practice in the Bombay High Court in 1967 and after occupying several judicial posts over the years, was appointed as a Supreme Court judge in October 2002. Over the years and till date, Justice Srikrishna has been handed the charge of investigating several sensitive matters, such as the Mumbai Riots, the Sixth Central Pay Commission, the committee for a separate Telangana and most recently, data protection.

On July 31, 2017, the Government of India appointed a 10-member Committee of Experts headed by Justice B N Srikrishna. The terms of reference of the Committee were "to study various issues relating to data protection in India", and "to make specific suggestions for consideration of the Central Government on principles to be considered for data protection in India and suggest a draft data protection bill". Justice Srikrishna led the Committee in navigating a middle path between the laissez-faire US approach and the GDPR of Europe, a path that would be uniquely suited to the needs of India.