Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution: Could it include ‘Right to Sanitation’?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
Anil Kumar Mohapatra
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Sanitation Facility ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

Long before India gained independence, M.K. Gandhi remarked that the availability of Sanitation facility is more important than gaining Independence for an Indian. Of late, it is now increasingly felt and realized in India that facilities like toilet, safe drinking water, accompanied by good hygienic conditions are fundamental necessities of a person. These are prerequisites of social and economic justice and genuine development. The Supreme Court of India in one judgement held that Right to life and personal liberty, should include right to privacy and human dignity etc. Despite that it has been an admitted shame that India still has the largest number of people defecating in open in the world. There are reported incidences of rape and murder of women in many places in India as women rely on open field for attending to the call of nature in morning and evening. The attempts like Community toi-let system, pay-and-use toilet system and schemes like ‘Mo Swabhiman -Mo Paikhana’ have been found to be less effective. In this connection the ‘Clean India Mission’ campaign launched by the Government of India in 2014 has been regarded as a right approach in that direction. Government of the day is actively considering the demand to convert the Right to Sanitation from a developmental right to a fundamental right. It would make the state more accountable and responsible. Against this background, the paper argues that spending huge money on that would yield good dividend in future for the country.

scholarly journals Concept of right to life and its protection under the Constitution of India

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
HARSH PATHAK
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Original Sense ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
The Right

The constitution and jurist characterized Article 21 as, “the procedural magna carta, protective of life and liberty”. This right has been held to be the heart of the constitution, the most organic and progressive provision in Indian constitution, the foundation of our laws. Article 21 can only be claimed when a person is deprived of his “life” or “personal liberty” by the “State” as defined in Article 12. Violation of the right by private individuals is not within the preview of it. Article 21 applies to natural persons. The right is available to every person, citizen or alien. It, however, does not entitle a foreigner the right to reside and settle in India, as mentioned in Article 19 (1) (e). Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. The right to life is undoubtedly the most fundamental of all rights. All other rights add quality to the life in question and depend on the pre-existence of life itself for their operation. There would have been no fundamental rights worth mentioning if Article 21 had been interpreted in its original sense. This Article will examine the right to life as interpreted and applied by the Supreme Court of India.

scholarly journals Right to Sanitation: A Challenge in the Post Disaster Situations

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-115
Author(s):  
Subhradipta Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean Tsunami ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Government ◽  
Protection Of Right ◽  
Post Disaster

Sanitation is an integral part of healthy living conditions. It is identified in various legal instruments in the form of right to adequate housing, health, water, etc. These rights are closely interlinked. The enforcement of these rights is dependent upon sanitation facilities. Sanitation remains one of the most neglected issues having serious implication on the lives and livelihoods of billions of people around the world. This paper contends that India being extremely disaster prone, sanitation is one of the crucial areas which require immediate attention in the aftermath of every disaster. Whether it is the Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) or Aila (2009), the government failed to provide adequate sanitation facilities in most of the temporary shelters. The lack of inadequate drainage facilities, dysfunctional state of toilets, and absence of sufficient drinking water had resulted in unhygienic conditions. The paper cites various international instruments pertaining to the scope and importance of protection of right to water and sanitation during disasters. The Supreme Court of India has conceptualized ̳right to sanitation‘ within the meaning of ̳right to life‘ as guaranteed under our Constitution. Though sanitation has found mention in various domestic legislation including the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the scenario is far from encouraging. The paper identifies indifference of authorities towards the problem, unscientific construction of shelters and theory oriented policies as causes responsible for the failure to address the issue of adequate sanitation. The paper offers certain suggestions to ensure a comprehensive policy safeguarding right to adequate sanitation in post disaster situations.

scholarly journals RIGHT TO FOOD FOR ALL IN INDIA: MYTH OR REALITY

2018 ◽  
pp. 178-189
Author(s):  
Grishma Soni ◽  
Prachi V. Motiyani
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide Emission ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Right To Food ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

As we all know that food is the basic Human necessity, without which no one can survive. Making food available for all the people in the world is now days becoming a complex issue. The availability food is decreasing as a result of increase in population that will result in food insecurity or malnutrition. Indian constitution interprets the right to food as part of right to life, which is fundamental human right. Change in climate, the impact of globalization, Global Warming, Carbon dioxide emission from fuel etc. also affects the right to food of many people. This paper examines the situation prevailing in India and looks into the obligations and initiatives by the government of India to ensure Right to Food and make suggestions for addressing the issue and examines the possible way to make the scheme workable to achieve food security.

Shielding the Confidentiality, Privacy, and Data Security of Bio-Medical Information in India

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
Varinder Singh ◽  
Shikha Dhiman
Keyword(s):  
Data Security ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Indian Constitution ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
The Right

The framers of Indian Constitution were very much cognizant about the significance of human nobility and worthiness and hence they incorporated the “right to life and personal liberty” in the Constitution of India. Right to life is considered as one of the primordial fundamental rights. There is no doubt that Indian Judiciary has lived up to the expectations of the Constitution framers, both in interpreting and implementing Article 21 initially, but there are still a few complications left as to the viability of Article 21 in modern times. Looking at the wider arena of right to life, it can be articulated that broader connotation of “right to life” aims at achieving the norms of “privacy” as well.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Form and the Human Conceptus

1996 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-24
Author(s):  
Ashley K. Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Very Old ◽  
The World ◽  
Moral Precept ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

Human rights are not a privilege conferred by the government They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or sovereign … I have no new teaching for America. I seek only to recall you to faithfulness to what you once taught the world Your nation was founded on the proposition — very old as a moral precept, but startling and innovative as political insight — that human life is a gift of immeasurable worth, and that it deserves, always and everywhere, to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect — Mother Theresa of Calcutta (1994) 1

Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Ret'd) and Anr v. Union of India and Ors

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 994-1000
Author(s):  
Menaka Guruswamy
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
National Database ◽  
Demographic Information ◽  
Right To Privacy ◽  
Fundamental Freedom ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
Foreign Law ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Right

On August 24, 2017, the Supreme Court of India issued a rare, unanimous nine-judge decision holding that the right to privacy is protected by the Constitution of India. The case is all the more noteworthy because the Court reversed its prior decisions holding that the right to privacy was not protected by the country's Constitution. It arose out of the government's creation of a national database of biometric and demographic information for every Indian. Rejecting the government's arguments, the Court found that the right to privacy applies across the gamut of “fundamental” rights including equality, dignity (Article 14), speech, expression (Article 19), life, and liberty (Article 21). The six separate and concurring judgments in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Ret'd) and Anr v. Union of India and Ors are trailblazing for their commitment to privacy as a fundamental freedom and for the judges’ use of foreign law across jurisdictions and spanning centuries.

scholarly journals Public Interest Litigation: A Conceptual Framework

2010 ◽  
pp. 85-89
Author(s):  
Manas Ranjan Samantaray ◽  
Mritunjay Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Public Interest Litigation ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Government

Public interest litigation (PIL) has a vital role in the civil justice system in that it could achieve those objectives which could hardly be achieved through conventional private litigation.PIL, for instance, offers a ladder to justice to disadvantaged sections of society, provides an avenue to enforce diffused or collective rights, and enables civil society to not only spread awareness about human rights but also allows them to participate in government decision making. PIL could also contribute to good governance by keeping the government accountable. This article will show, with reference to the Indian experience, that PIL could achieve these important objectives. However, the Indian PIL experience also shows us that it is critical to ensure that PIL does not become a facade to fulfil private interests, settle political scores or gain easy publicity. Judiciary in a democracy should also not use PIL as a device to run the country on a day-today basis or enter the legitimate domain of the executive and legislature. The challenge for states, therefore, is to strike a balance in allowing legitimate PIL cases and discouraging frivolous ones. One way to achieve this balance could be to build in economic (dis)incentives in PIL and also confine it primarily to those cases where access to justice is undermined by some kind of disability. Judiciary, being the sentinel of constitutional statutory rights of citizens has a special role to play in the constitutional scheme. It can review legislation and administrative actions or decisions on the anvil of constitutional law. For the enforcement of fundamental rights one has to move the Supreme Court or the High Court’s directly by invoking Writ Jurisdiction of these courts. But the high cost and complicated procedure involved in litigation, however, makes equal access to jurisdiction in mere slogan in respect of millions of destitute and underprivileged masses stricken by poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. The Supreme Court of India pioneered the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) thereby throwing upon the portals of courts to the common man. Till 1960s and seventies, the concept of litigation in India was still in its rudimentary form and was seen as a private pursuit for the vindication of private vested interests. Litigation in those days consisted mainly of some action initiated and continued by certain individuals, usually, addressing their own grievances/problems. Thus, the initiation and continuance of litigation was the prerogative of the injured person or the aggrieved party. However, these entire scenario changed during Eighties with the Supreme Court of India led the concept of public interest litigation (PIL). The Supreme Court of India gave all individuals in the country and the newly formed consumer groups or social action groups, an easier access to the law and introduced in their work a broad public interest perspective.

Cow Vigilantism and India’s Evolving Human Rights Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravindra Pratap
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Human Right To Food

AbstractThe paper seeks to understand India’s evolving rights framework in the backdrop of cow vigilantism. To that end it discusses the human right to food and nutrition, international discussion on minority rights issues in India and the relevant legal and constitutional discussion in India. It finds that India’s rights framework has evolved since proclamation of India as a Republic in 1950 based on the supremacy of its written constitution containing fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy interpreted finally by its Supreme Court. The government took a wise step by not challenging a judicial rebalancing of the rights framework in response to certain executive measures and the Supreme Court interpreted the right to life to include not only the right to the choice of food but also the right to privacy and thereby underscored the obligation of the State to compensate the victims of cow vigilante violence. However, a constitutional polity and secular state would do all well if it did any further necessary to better guard against any recurrence of the breach of civil peace, much less violence, on purely secular issues, including by strengthening and increasing dialogue with all representative communities in all its decision-making on such matters.

scholarly journals Right to Environment and Right to Development: A Judicial Conundrum

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Uday Shankar ◽  
Saurabh Bindal
Keyword(s):  
Basic Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Status ◽  
Free Environment ◽  
The Right

Pollution free environment is indispensible for the inhabitants of this planet. The Supreme Court of India taking cognizance of the same in its judicial creativity has accorded the right to live in a pollution free environment the status of a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. At the same time, right to development places human beings at the centre of development casting an obligation on the state to ensure the benefits of development to the citizenry. Interestingly, both right to environment and right to development draw their genesis from Article 21 of the Constitution. Such affirmation of rights necessarily presents a question of compliance by the state. This paper traces the origin of right to environment and right to development in the larger context of the fundamental rights. It critically examines the usefulness of declaration of these rights under the scheme of the Constitution. It argues that the judiciary in its judicial creativity has made unreasonable interference into the matters reserved for the executive which is not in accordance with the basic structure of the Constitution. The paper calls for maintenance of harmony between the two organs of the state.

scholarly journals MEDICAL ETHICS & MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE – A SYSTEMATIC PURVIEW WITH JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Mr. Chinmoy Patra
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Judicial Interpretation ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Protection Of Life

In every profession or calling certain kind of ethical code of conduct is always a sine quo non for its effective functioning and accountability. So far as Medical profession or Health Care Utility is concerned, it also plays a most vital role in protecting the society by providing its best expert medical service which is in turns saves the life's of millions of people who are in need of these services of professionals and organizations when they are in bad state of health conditions. The Constitution of India incorporates provision guaranteeing everyone's right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees protection of life and personal liberty to every citizen.The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has held that in State of Punjab Vs.Mohinder Singh Chawla (1997)2 SCC 83. – “That right to health is integral to the right to life and the government has a constitutional obligation to provide health facilities

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