sunny final.docx

8/13/2019 sunny final.docx

1/22

1

ABSTRACT

Indian Judiciary though is restrained, in many ways has evolved itself as a savior of mankind by applying

its judicial activism. This article discusses few recent landmark cases of India wherein it threw focus on

how the Indian Supreme Court by taking the resort of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution evolved itself

as a savior of mankind. It discusses in detail the traditional and modern approach, and the current trend of

the Supreme Court in interpreting Article 21 of the Constitution. Further, it discusses the need for such

judicial activism and concludes by justifying the activist role played by the Supreme Court.

Article 21 is the celebrity provision of the Indian Constitution and occupies a unique place as a

fundamental right for the people of India. It protects the life and personal liberty. It envisages and aims

that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except to a procedure established by law.

Here, right to life includes right to health, right to good food, right to pollution free environment, etc. In

simple words, Article 21 provides an inbuilt guarantee to a person for right to live with human dignity.

This article focuses on some of the landmark cases that have a bearing on the persons right to life andthereby with the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Right to life is an inalienable and inherent right of

every human being.

-Thomas Jefferson


2/22

2

INTRODUCTION

This paper is a study of judicial interpretation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and

judicial activism on the part of the Supreme Court of India. This article comprehensively

examines Supreme Court of Indias judicial activism and thus the broad interpretation of Article21 of the Indian Constitution. It explores the reasons for such liberal interpretation when there

was no such mandate by the framers of the Constitution. It examines the reasons for judicial

creativity and justifies the role played by the Supreme Court of India in protecting the

fundamental rights of the citizens when the legislative and executive failed in performing their

duties. To some extent, judicial activism on the part of judiciary derives from underlying

weakness and failure on the part of other machineries of the State to perform their duties.

Right to life and personal liberty is the most cherished and pivotal fundamental human rights

around which other rights of the individual revolve and, therefore, the study assumes great

significance. The study of right to life is indeed a study of the Supreme Court as a guardian of

fundamental human rights. Article 21 is the celebrity provision of the Indian Constitution and

occupies a unique place as a fundamental right. It guarantees right to life and personal liberty to

citizens and aliens and is enforceable against the State. The new interpretation of Article 21 in

Maneka Gandhis case has ushered a new era of expansion of the horizons o f right to life and

personal liberty. The wide dimension given to this right now covers various aspects which the

founding fathers of the Constitution might or might not have visualized.

The above stated revolution in the basic concept makes it imperative that the concept of right to

life and personal liberty should be examined a new with reference to development, meaning,

width and depth, along with judicial interpretation, justification for such liberal interpretation,

and relation of Article 21 with the provisions of Article 32 and Directive Principles of the State

Policy and International Human Rights Instruments. Further, the protection of this right is

burning topics of the day. Hence an attempt has been made in this essay to examine the modern

day standards adopted for protecting the right to life and personal liberty.

The Constitution said Woodrow Wilson, is not a mere lawyers document. It is, he said, the

vehicle of a nations life. The Indian Supreme Court has created major reforms in the protection

of human rights. Taking a judicial activist role, the Court has put itself in a unique position to

intervene when it sees violations of these fundamental rights. In India the guardian of

democracy is not the legislative wisdom but the wisdom of the highest court of the land.

The Supreme Court, as the arbiter and interpreter of the Constitution, serves not merely the

negative purpose of checking excesses in judicial practice, but also the vital and dynamic

function of modulating the life of the nation. The Supreme Court is the guardian of the


3/22

3

Constitution under whose protective wings the nation has prospered and grown to greatness.

Thus, the law as seen in the wordings of the enactment gets a dynamic and wider scope in day to

day events by the legal processes advanced by judicial creativity.

Right to life and personal liberty is the modern name for what have been traditionally known

as natural right. It is the primordial rights necessary for the development of human personality.It is the moral right which every human being everywhere at all times ought to have simply

because of the fact that in contrast with other beings, he is rational and moral. It is the

fundamental right which enable a man to chalk out his own life in the manner he likes best. Right

to life and personal liberty is one of the rights of the people of India preserved by the

Constitution of India, 1950 and enforced by the High Courts and Supreme Court under article

226 and 32 respectively. In this essay we will discuss the modern and liberal interpretation given

to the concept of right to life and personal liberty by the Indian Judiciary. Chapter I deals with

the introductory part of right to life and personal liberty. In this chapter, an attempt is being made

to trace the meanings of life, right to life, and personal liberty. In Chapter II o f the essay we

will overlook the provision of Article 32 of the Constitution to understand the power of the

Supreme Court of India to interpret Article 21 and a remedy for human beings to approach the

apex court when there is infringement of fundamental rights, particularly Article 21. In Chapter

III we will discuss in detail the facets which comprise Article 21 i.e. right to life, personal

liberty, and procedure established by law. Further, we explore the relation and interpretation

given to Article 21 with special reference to Directive Principles of the State Policy and

International Human Rights Documents. In Chapter IV we will have an overlook on the

traditional and narrow approach of the Indian judiciary in interpreting Article 21 of the

Constitution. Further, in the next part the discussion will focus on the modern approach of the

Courts, by referring to a historical case which changed the interpretation of right to life in India.In Chapter 4 it will be demonstrated how judicial interpretation enhanced the ambit of right to

life by discussing some selected cases. In the next section we will discuss the meaning of judicial

activism and arguments for and against judicial activism. We will also discuss the justification

for judicial activism and I would argue in favour of judicial activism. Further, we will overlook

the controversy between judicial activism and separation of powers. (Judicial Activism v

Doctrine of Separation of Powers) and discuss in detail the judicial restraint (self-restraint)

necessary for the judiciary while interpreting Article 21 by looking into the minds of the framers

of the Indian Constitution.

MEANING AND CONCEPT OF RIGHT TO LIFE

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. The right to lifeis 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. As human rights can only attach to living

beings, one might expect the right to life itself to be in some sense primary, since none of the


4/22

4

other rights would have any value or utility without it. There would have been no Fundamental

Rights worth mentioning if Article 21 had been interpreted in its original sense. This chapter will

examine the right to life as interpreted and applied by the Supreme Court of India. Article 21 of

the Constitution of India, 1950 provides that, No person shall be deprived of his life or personal

liberty except according to procedure established by law. Life in Article 21 of the Constitution

is not merely the physical act of breathing. It does not connote mere animal existence or

continued drudgery through life. It has a much wider meaning which includes right to live with

human dignity, right to livelihood right to health, right to pollution free air, etc. Right to life is

fundamental to our very existence without which we cannot live as human being and includes all

those aspects of life which go to make a man's life meaningful, complete and worth living. It is

the only article in the Constitution which has received the widest possible interpretation. Under

the canopy of Article 21 so many rights have found shelter, growth and nourishment. Thus, the

bare necessities, the minimum and basic requirements which are essential and unavoidable for a

person is the core concept of right to life. In the next part we will discuss the meaning and

concept of personal liberty as interpreted by the Supreme Court of India.

MEANING AND CONCEPT OF PERSONAL LIBERTY

Liberty of the person is one of the oldest concepts to be protected by national courts. As long as

1215, the English Magna Carta provided that, No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned... but...

by the law of the land. The smallest Article of eighteen words has the greatest significance for

those who cherish the ideals of liberty. What can be more important than liberty? In India the

concept of liberty has received a far more expansive interpretation. The Supreme Court of India

has rejected the view that liberty denotes merely freedom from bodily restraint; and has held that

it encompasses those rights and privileges which have long been recognized as being essential to

the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. The meaning of the term personal liberty was

considered by the Supreme Court in the Kharak Singhs case, which arose out of the challenge to

Constitutional validity of the U. P. Police Regulations which provided for surveillance by way of

domiciliary visits and secret picketing. Oddly enough both the majority and minority on the

bench relied on the meaning given to the term personal liberty by an American judgment (per

Field, J.,) in Munn v Illinois, which held the term life meant something more than mere animal

existence. The prohibition against its deprivation extended to all those limits and faculties by

which the life was enjoyed. This provision equally prohibited the mutilation of the body or the

amputation of an arm or leg or the putting of an eye or the destruction of any other organ of the

body through which the soul communicated with the outer world. The majority held that the U.

P. Police Regulations authorizing domiciliary visits [at night by police officers as a form of

surveillance, constituted a deprivation of liberty and thus] unconstitutional. The Court observed

that the right to personal liberty in the Indian Constitution is the right of an individual to be free

from restrictions or encroachments on his person, whether they are directly imposed or indirectly


5/22

5

brought about by calculated measures.

The Supreme Court has held that even lawful imprisonment does not spell farewell to all

fundamental rights. A prisoner retains all the rights enjoyed by a free citizen except only those

necessarily lost as an incident of imprisonment. To understand broadly the composition ofArticle 21 we will overlook one of the facets of Article 21 - procedure established by law in the

next part.

PROCEDURE ESTABLISHED BY LAW

The expression procedure established by law has been subject matter of interpretation in a

catena of cases. A survey of these cases reveals that courts in the process of judicial

interpretation have enlarged the scope of the expression. The Supreme Court took the view that

procedure established by law in Article 21 means procedure prescribed by law as enacted by

the state and rejected to equate it with the American due process of law. But, in Maneka

Gandhi v Union of India the Supreme Court observed that the procedure prescribed by law for

depriving a person of his life and personal liberty must be right, just and fair and not

arbitrary, fanciful and oppressive, otherwise it would be no procedure at all and the

requirement of Article 21 would not be satisfied. Thus, the procedure established by law hasacquired the same significance in India as the due process of law clause in America. Justice V.

R. Krishna Iyer, speaking in Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration has said that though our

Constitution has no due process clause but after Maneka Gandhis cas the consequence is the

same, and as much as such Article 21 may be treated as counterpart of the due process clause in

American Constitution.Recently the Supreme Court has dealt with an increasing number of

people sentenced to death for bride-burning. In December 1985 the Rajasthan High Court

sentenced a man, Jagdish Kumar, and a woman, Lichma Devi, to death for two separate cases of

killing two young woman by setting them on fire. In an unprecedented move the court ordered

both prisoners to be publicly executed. In a response to a review petition by the Attorney-

General against this judgment the Supreme Court in December 1985 stayed the public hangings,

observing that a barbaric crime does not have to be met with a barbaric penalty. The Court

observed that the execution of death sentence by public hanging is violation of article 21, which

mandates the observance of a just, fair and reasonable procedure. Thus, an order passed by the

High Court of Rajasthan for public hanging was set aside by the Supreme Court on the ground

inter alia, that it was violative of article 21. In Sher Singh v State of Punjab the Supreme Court


6/22

6

held that unjustifiable delay in execution of death sentence violates art 21.

The Supreme Court has taken the view that this article read as a whole is concerned with the

fullest development of an individual and ensuring his dignity through the rule of law. Every

procedure must seem to be reasonable, fair and just. The right to life and personal liberty hasbeen interpreted widely to include the right to livelihood, health, education, environment and all

those matters which contributed to life with dignity. The test of procedural fairness has been

deemed to be one which is commensurate to protecting such rights. Thus, where workers have

been deemed to have the right to public employment and its concomitant right to livelihood, a

hire-fire clause in favour of the State is not reasonable, fair and just even though the State cannot

affirmatively provide livelihood for all. Under this doctrine the Court will not just examine

whether the procedure itself is reasonable, fair and just, but also whether it has been operated in a

fair, just and reasonable manner. This has meant, for example the right to speedy trial and legal

aid is part of any reasonable, fair and just procedure. The process clause is comprehensive and

applicable in all areas of State action covering civil, criminal and administrative action.

The Supreme Court of India in one of the landmark decision in the case of Murli S. Deora v

Union of India observed that, the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the

Constitution of India provides that none shall be deprived of his life without due process of law.

The Court observed that smoking in public places is an indirect deprivation of life of non-

smokers without any process of law. Taking into consideration the adverse effect of smoking on

smokers and passive smokers, the Supreme Court directed prohibition of smoking in public

places. It issued directions to the Union of India, State Governments and the Union Territories to

take effective steps to ensure prohibition of smoking in public places such as auditoriums,

hospital buildings, health institutions etc. In this manner the Supreme Court gave a liberal

interpretation to Article 21 of the Constitution and expanded its horizon to include the rights of

non-smokers.

Further, when there is inordinate delay in the investigation it affects the right of the accused, as

he is kept in tenterhooks and suspense about the outcome of the case. If the investigating

authority pursues the investigation as per the provisions of the Code, there can be no cause of

action. But, if the case is kept alive without any progress in any investigation, then the provisions

of Article 21 are attracted and the right is not only against actual proceedings in court but also

against police investigation. The Supreme Court has widen the scope of procedure established

by law and held that merely a procedure has been established by law a person cannot be

deprived of his life and liberty unless the procedure is just, fair and reasonable. It is thus now

well established that the procedure established by law to deprive a person of his life and

personal liberty, must be just, fair and reasonable and that it must not be arbitrary, fanciful or

oppressive, that the procedure to be valid must comply with the principles of natural justice. To


7/22

7

understand broadly the co-relation between Article 21 and Directive Principles of the State

Policy, in the next section, we will overlook the interpretation given by the apex court to the said

provisions.

ARTICLE 21 AND DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF THE STATE POLICY

The Directive Principles of the State Policy as enumerated in Chapter-IV are not enforceable in a

court of law. Nevertheless, they are fundamental in the governance of the nation as the name

itself implies Directive Principles of the State Policy. The Constitution makers evolved what

was then a novel constitutional device which classified entitlements into fundamental rights

which were justiciable in a court of law and directive principles of state policy which though

not judicially enforceable, were nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the nation. In one

of the historic judgment in the case of Confederation of Ex-Servicemen Association and Others v

Union of India the apex court observed that,

Apart from fundamental rights guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution, it is the duty of the

respondents [Government of India] to implement Directive Principles of State Policy under Part

IV of the Constitution.

In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v Union of India Justice Bhagwati referring to Francis Coralie Mullin

v Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi, stated;It is the fundamental right of everyone in this

country, assured under the interpretation given to Article 21 by this Court in Francis Mullen's

case, to live with human dignity, free from exploitation. This right to live with human dignity

enshrined in Article 21 derives its life breath from the Directive Principles of State Policy and

particularly Clauses (e) and (f) of Article 39 and Articles 41 and 42 and at the least, therefore, it

must include protection of the health and strength of workers men and women, and of the tender

age of children against abuse, opportunities and facilities for children to develop in a healthy

manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity, educational facilities, just and humane

conditions of work etc. These are the minimum requirements which must exist in order to enable

a person to live with human dignity and no State neither the Central Government nor any State

Government has the right to take any action which will deprive a person of the enjoyment of

these basic essentials. Since the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Clauses (e) and

(f) of Article 39, Articles 41 and 42 are not enforceable in a court of law, it may not be possibleto compel the State through the judicial process to make provision by statutory enactment or

executive fiat for ensuring these basic essentials which go to make up a life of human dignity but

where legislation is already enacted by the State providing these basic requirements to the

workmen and thus investing their right to live with basic human dignity, with concrete reality

and content, the State can certainly be obligated to ensure observance of such legislation for

inaction on the part of the State in securing implementation of such legislation would amount to


8/22

8

denial of the right to live with human dignity enshrined in Article 21.

Thus the Court held that where a law has already been enacted to enforce Article 21 with

reference to the directive principles of the state policy it can compel the state to implement the

said legislation in letter and spirit.

In 1993, relying on the directive principle of the state policy, the Court ruled that the right to

education until the age of fourteen is a fundamental right and therefore falls under the protection

of Article 21 in conjunction with Article 41. Article 41 states: The State shall, within the limits

of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to

work, to education... Thus, the Court has interpreted the Directive Principles of the State Policy

in conjunction with Article 21 and gave a wider meaning to Article 21 so as to give life to that

article.

In the next part we will discuss in detail the relationship between Article 21 and international

human rights documents. We will elaborate and discuss the interpretation given by the Supreme

Court to Article 21 to interpret it in a manner so as to include within its ambit basic human rights

recognised by various international human rights instruments.

ARTICLE 21 AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTS

While international treaties do not automatically become part of domestic law upon ratification,

the Constitution provides, as Directive Principles of Sate Policy, that the government shall

endeavour to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in dealings of organized

people with one another, and also authorises the central government to enact legislation

implementing its international law obligations without regard to the ordinary division of central

and state government powers. The Supreme Court of India has frequently interpreted in light of

Indias international law obligations.

Justice A .S. Anand argues that any interpretation of a national law or constitution which

advances the cause of human rights and seeks to fulfil the purposes of international instruments

must be preferred to a sterile alternative. He further argues that it is a proper part of the judicial

process and a well established judicial function for national courts to have regard to the

international obligations undertaken by the country in question whether or not these have been

incorporated into domestic law for the purpose of removing ambiguity or uncertainty from

national constitutions, legislation or common law.


9/22

9

In Nilabati Behera v State of Orissa while justifying its award of compensation for infringement

of the right to life, the Court referred to the ICCPR, which indicates that an enforceable right to

compensation is not alien to the concept of enforcement of a guaranteed right.

In Prem Shankar Shukla v Delhi Administration while dealing with the handcuffing of prisoners

and other humiliations inflicted on persons in custody, the Supreme Court of India observed:

After all, even while discussing the relevant statutory provisions and constitutional requirements,

court and counsel must never forget the core principle found in Article 5 of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 : No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman

or degrading treatment or punishment.

In Hussainara Khatoon cases the Supreme Court not only advanced the prison reform in favour

of under-trials but also declared the right to speedy trial as an essential ingredient of Article 21.

Reaffirming as well as paving way for the implementation of Article 14, clause (3) (c) of the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which lays down that everyone is entitled

to be tried without delay and Article 16 of the Draft Principles on Equality in the

Administration of Justice which provides that everyone shall be guaranteed the right to prompt

and speedy hearing the Court directed the release of all those under trials against whom the

police had not filed charge sheets within the prescribed period of limitation. Such persons were

directed to be released forthwith as any further detention of such under trials would be according

to the court, a clear violation of Article 21.

In Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration the Supreme Court took note of Article 10 of the ICCPR

which states as that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with

respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. The Court then opined that:

The State shall take steps to keep up to the Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners

recommended by the United Nations, especially those relating to work and wages, treatment with

dignity, community contact and correctional strategies. In this latter aspect, the observations we

have made of holistic development of personality shall be kept in view.

The Court further emphasized that the Declaration of the Protection of All Persons from Torture

and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted by U.N. General

Assembly [72] has relevance to our decision. Thus, the Court has interpreted article 21 with the

widest possible amplitude so as to include within its ambit basic human rights guaranteed by

international human rights instruments though that has not been incorporated in national

legislation. In the next part we will discuss the traditional and narrow approach of the Supreme

Court in interpreting right to life.


10/22

10

ARTICLE 32 OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION:

A PROVISION TO ENFORCE ARTICLE 21

The most unique feature of the Indian Constitution is Article 32. It is a fundamental right

guaranteed to citizens of India under Part-III of the Constitution. The provision of the article

states that:

(1) The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the

rights conferred by this Part [Part-III] is guaranteed.

(2) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in

the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, whichever may

be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this Part. In the ConstituentAssembly Debates Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar once said, if I am asked which is the most

important provision of the Indian Constitution, without which the Constitution would not survive

I would point to none other than article 32 which is the soul of the Indian Constitution.

The judicially enforceable fundamental rights provisions of the Indian Constitution are set

forth in part III in order to distinguish them from the non-justifiable directive principles set

forth in part IV, which establish the aspiration goals of economic justice and social

transformation. Overtime, case law has come to interpret Article 32 as allowing for ordinary

citizens to petition the Supreme Court in matters where the government is accused of infringingupon the fundamental rights [particularly Article 21] of the constitution. In addition, the

Constitution includes Article 226 which the Courts have interpreted as giving any claimant the

opportunity to file suit on behalf of the public in a High Court, when there is a violation of

fundamental right or a right guaranteed by statute. Thus, Article 32 is the soul of the Indian

Constitution. When there is infringement of Article 21 the aggrieved person can approach the

Supreme Court of India for enforcement of his fundamental rights.


11/22

11

THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH

It is hard to appreciate fully the extent of development of right to life without an overview of the

traditional approach. In A. K. Gopalan v Union of India, the traditional interpretation of Article

21 of the Constitution was that a procedure established by law can deprive a person of his right

to life. Thus, the earliest understanding of this provision was a narrow and procedural one. The

state had to demonstrate the interference with the individuals right to life is accorded with the

procedure laid down by properly enacted law. It didnt matter whether the law was just & fair.

Moreover, in Gopalan case the Court declined to infuse the guarantee of due process of law,

contained in article 21, with substantive content, holding that as long as the preventive detention

statutes had been duly enacted in accordance with the procedures of article 22, the requirements

of due process were satisfied. The interpretation as made by the Court was nothing more than the

freedom from arrest and detention, from false imprisonment or wrongful confinement of the

physical body.[83] Thus, personal liberty said to mean only liberty relating to person or body

of individual and in this sense it was the antithesis of physical restraint or coercion. In the next

Chapter it will be demonstrated how the traditional and narrow approach of the Supreme Court

in interpreting Article 21 changed with changing time. Reference will be made to the Maneka

Gandhis case and the dramatic change of attitude by the Court in interpreting Article 21 in a

manner so as to impliedly include due process of law into the contents of Article 21.

The Foundations of Change and the Beginning of New Era

In this section it will demonstrated how judiciary dramatically changed the traditional

interpretation of right to life to a modern and flexible interpretation. It was not until 1978 that the

Supreme Court breathed substantive life into Article 21 by subjecting state action interfering

with a persons right to life to a test of reasonableness; requiring not only that the procedures be

authorized by law, but that they are right,just, fair and reasonable.This transformation paved

the way for a substantive re-interpretation of constitutional and legal guarantees and positive

judicial intervention. In the case of Maneka Gandhi v Union of India, the petitioners passportwas impounded 'in public interest' by an order dated July 2, 1977. The Government of India

declined in the interests of the general public to furnish the reasons for its decision. Thereupon,

the petitioner filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution to challenge the order. The

petitioner contended before the Court that the order of the Government of India does not

prescribe 'procedure' within the meaning of Article 21 and if it is held that procedure has been

prescribed, it is unfair, unjust and unreasonable. The Supreme Court held that the order passed


12/22

12

against the petitioner was neither fair nor proper according to the procedure established by law.

The decision given by the Supreme Court in this case is historic and landmark because it is the

first of its kind which enhanced the scope of right to life. Specifically, Maneka Gandhis case

recognized an implied substantive component to the term liberty in article 21 that provides

broad protection of individual freedom against unreasonable or arbitrary curtailment. This paved

the way for a dramatic increase in constitutional protection of human rights in India under the

mantle of the Public Interest Litigation movement (PIL).

As discussed above the ghost of Gopalan was finally laid in Maneka Gandhis case. A

Constitutional Bench of Seven judges (overruling Gopalan) read into Article 21 a new

dimension: it was not enough, said the Court, that the law prescribed some semblance of

procedure for depriving a person of his life or personal liberty; the procedure prescribed by the

law had to be reasonable, fair and just; if not, the law would be held void as violating theguarantee of Article 21. This fresh look at Article 21 has helped the apex court in its new role as

the institutional ombudsman of human rights in India. The decision in Maneka Gandhi became

the starting point, the springboard, for a spectacular evolution of the law relating to judicial

intervention in (individual) human rights cases. Thus, the principle laid down by the apex court

in this case is that the procedure established by law for depriving a person of his right to life

must be right, just, fair, and reasonable. In the next part we will discuss some selected cases

which enhanced the scope and ambit of right to life and personal liberty in India and the current

trend (judicial activism) of judiciary in interpreting Article 21.

THE CURRENT TREND

Maneka Gandhis case demonstrates how judicial activism can expand the reach of law with a

view to curbing and controlling executive discretion and ensuring the basic human rights of the

citizen. In this part it will be demonstrated how judicial interpretation enhanced right to life andpersonal liberty in India with regard to the present scenario. Few landmark cases will be

discussed which has drastically changed the interpretation of Article 21. The modern

interpretation of right to life is one of the historical developments of constitutional law.

In the Delhi Pollution Case the Supreme Court held in 1989 that Article 21 of the Constitution

guaranteeing the right to life must be interpreted to include the right to live in a healthy


13/22

13

environment with minimum disturbance of ecological balance, and without avoidable hazard

to [the people] and to their cattle, house and agricultural land, and undue affection of air, water,

and environment.

The subsequent ruling in Charan Lal Sahu v. Union of India expanded upon this decision whenJustice Kuldip Singh described the governments role in the protection of fundamental rights: it

is the obligation of the State to assume such responsibility and protect its citizens. The Court

held that the governments obligation to protect fundamental rights forces it to protect the

environment. Thus, from time to time the Supreme Court interpreted Article 21 broadly so as to

infuse real life in the said article. It also waived the rule of locus standi so as to make the life of

the citizens of India meaningful.

In Francis Coralie Mullin v Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi, the Honourable Supreme

Court stated that, The right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes

along with it, namely, the bare necessaries of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter

over the head and facilities for reading, writing and expressing oneself in diverse forms, freely

moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow human beings.

Thus, the Supreme Court interpreted Article 21 in a widest possible manner and included within

its ambit the right to live with human dignity.

The cases examined in this part primarily relate to the modern approach of the Indian judiciary

which demonstrated the enhanced interpretation of right to life and personal liberty. Thus, the

scope of Article 21 of the Constitution has been considerably expanded by the Indian Supreme

Court, which has interpreted the right of life to mean the right to live a civilized life. In the next

part of the essay we will discuss briefly the meaning of judicial activism so as to understand the

creativity of the Indian judiciary in interpreting Article 21.

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

Judicial review [activism] means power of court of law to examine the actions of the legislative,

executive and administrative arms of the government and to determine whether such actions are

consistent with the constitution. Actions judged inconsistent are unconstitutional and therefore,

null and void. Activism means an institution extending its mechanism of decision making into

the domain of other institutions tasks. The term judicial activism is explained as judicial


14/22

14

philosophy which motives judges to depart from strict adherence to judicial precedent in favor of

progressive and new social policies which are not always consistent with the restraint of

appellate judges.

Judicial activism is a term that, to the non-lawyer, has come to mean strident judicialintervention that holds the executive to account for its sins of commission and, often, omission.

The reach of judicial activism is also believed to extend to filling in spaces of silence where

legislatures have not spoken a belief reinforced by verdicts such as Vishaka v State of

Rajasthan, which set out a law of sexual harassment at the workplace till a law is enacted by

Parliament. In this context, it is judicial activism, as it has emerged through PIL that has given

the court vibrancy and relevance among social factors beyond the rarefied confines of the legal

community. S. P. Sathe argues that judicial review [judicial activism] means overseeing by the

judiciary of the exercise of power by other co-ordinate organs of government with a view to

ensuring that they remain confined to the limits drawn upon their powersby the Constitution.

Surya Deva rightly argues that judicial activism refers to the phenomenon of the court dealing

with those issues which they have traditionally not touched or which were not in he

contemplation of the founding fathers... It is a state of mind, the origin of which lies in the

inactivism of other two wings of the government. Justice V. G. Palshikar asserts that judicial

activism means an active interpretation of existing legislation by a judge, made with a view toenhance the utility of legislation for social betterment.Whereas Justice J. S. Verma has been

more emphatic in laying down the exact norms of sufficient activist criterion. The learned judge

has remarked:

Judicial activism is required only when there is inertia in others. Proper judicial activism is that

which ensures proper functioning of all other organs and the best kind of judicial activism is that

which brings about results with the least judicial intervention. If everyone else is working, we

dont have to step in.

It is, no doubt, true that the judge has to interpret the law according to the words used by thelegislature. But, as pointed out by Mr. Justice Holmes: A word is not a crystal, transparent and

unchanged; it is the skein of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content

according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used. It is for the judge to give

meaning to what the legislature has said and it is this process of interpretation which constitutes

the most creative and thrilling function of the judge. The judge is required not only to temper his

role to the individual case, but to constantly invent new rules to more justly handle recurrent fact


15/22

15

situations that the law has not fully anticipated. It is there that the judge takes part in the process

of law-making-what Mr. Justice Holmes called interstitial legislation. Judicial Activism is

nothing but courts move to reach at the doorstep of the lowly and lost to provide them justice.

Lord Hewart has asserted, It ... is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be

done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done. Judicial activism is the

response to this reaction. It is worthwhile to mention the observations of the Supreme Court of

India in one of the landmark decision that the function of the court is not merely to interpret the

law but to make it imaginatively sharing the passion of the Constitution for social justice. I

would describe judicial activism as a form of creative constitutional development. Having

discussed briefly what constitutes judicial activism, it is important to understand the legitimacy

of judicial activism. In the next section the discussion will focus on one of the most important

and debatable questionhow far judicial activism is justified?

HOW FAR JUDICIAL ACTIVISM IS JUSTIFIED?

Of all the institutions established by the Constitution the higher judiciary seems to have acquitted

itself in the last 60 years as the best in a relative sense. The most respected public institution in

India is the Supreme Court, respected by the elite and the illiterate alike. If the Court has come

increasingly effective in its role as the final arbiter of justice, it is because of the confidence the

common man has placed in it. The Court has no army at its command. It does not hold any purse

strings. Its strength lies largely in the command it has over the hearts and minds of the public and

the manner in which it can influence and mould public opinion. As the distinguished French

author Alexis de Toquevulle describes the power wielded by judges is the power of publicopinion.

Hamilton called the court system the weakest organ of government because it had control over

neither the sword nor the purse. A court becomes strong only when it identifies itself with the

disadvantaged minorities and they see the court as an independent institution, a bulwark against

oppression and tyranny. A court gains strength only by carving a niche for itself in the minds of

the people. A court must appear to the people as their protector. It must not only be, but also

must appear to be impartial, principled, and capable of achieving results. There would have been

no Fundamental Rights worth mentioning if Article 21 had been interpreted in its original sense.

Judges participating in judicial review of legislative action should be creative and not

mechanistic in their interpretations. According to Justice Cardozo, a written constitution states

or ought to state not rules for the passing hour but principles for an expanding future. Judges


16/22

16

who interpret a written constitution cannot merely apply the law to the facts that come before

them. The scope of judicial creativity expands when a constitution contains a bill of rights. It is

one thing to consider whether a legislature has acted within its powers and another to consider

whether its acts, although within its plenary powers, are violative of any of the basic rights of the

people. Therefore, judges who interpret a bill of rights must expound upon the philosophy and

ideology that underlies the bill of rights. When judges interpret the law or a constitution by not

merely giving effect to the literal meaning of the words, but by trying to provide an interpretation

consistent with the spirit of that statute or constitution, they are said to be activist judges. In this

sense, the judges who developed the common law were also activist.

Justice Krishna Iyer, in his own vivid terms, explained that A Nineteenth Century text, when

applied to Twentieth-Century conditions, cannot be construed by signals from the grave. Justice

Krishna Iyer in the landmark decision of Rajendra Prasad v State of U.P. observed that,

When the legislative text is too bald to be self-acting or suffers zigzag distortion in action, the

primary obligation is on Parliament to enact necessary clauses by appropriate amendments to S.

302 I.P.C. But if legislative under taking is not in sight, judges who have to implement the Code

cannot fold up their professional hands but must make the provision viable by evolution of

supplementary principles, even if it may appear to posses the flavor of law-making. [He further

went on to quote] Lord Jennings observations: Many of the Judges of England have said that

they do not make law. They only interpret it. This is an illusion which they have fostered. But it

is a notion which is now being discarded everywhere. Every new decision - on every new

situation - is a development of the law. Law does not stand still. It moves continually. Once this

is recognized, then the task of the Judge is put on a higher plane. He must consciously seek to

mould the law so as to serve the needs of the time. He must not be a mere mechanic, a mere

working mason, laying brick on brick, without thought to the overall design. He must be an

architect - thinking of the structure as a whole, building for society a system of law which is

strong, durable and just. It is on his work that civilized society itself depends.

The Supreme Court of India in Charles Sobhrajs caseobserved that a constitution is not to be

interpreted by reference to the wishes or opinions of its framers, but by consideration of the

evolving standards of decency and signify that mark the progress of a mature society.

The extension of judicial review over constitutional amendments was itself an exercise in

judicial activism on the part of the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court, in the leading

case of His Holiness Kesavananda Bharati v State of Kerala, held by a process of judicial

interpretation that though there are no express words in Article 368 of the Indian Constitution

limiting the power conferred by that Article on Parliament to amend the Constitution, that power

is not an unlimited or unrestricted power and it does not entitle Parliament to amend the

Constitution in such a way as to alter or affect the basic structure of the Constitution. This is


17/22

17

undoubtedly a most remarkable instance of judicial activism, for that has gone to the farthest

extent in limiting the constituent power of Parliament.

M. P. Jain argues that judicial interpretation of article 21, which provides that No person shall

be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law, hasled to a vast extension of substantive rights. Jain rightly depicts this interpretation as the Indian

version of the American concept of due process of law, but the scope of the expansion into the

substantive domain engineered by the Indian Court far exceeds that of its American counterpart.

The Indian Court has emerged relatively unscathed in recent decades as a leading actor in the

ordering of domestic priorities within the polity can be attributed in no small measure to a

constitutional ethos that encourages all institutions, including the judiciary, to become active

participants in the realization of particular ideological aspirations. In effect there exists a

constitutional mandate for judicial activism.

Justice M. K. Mukherjee while restraining the use of judicial activism observed ...to invoke

judicial activism to set at naught legislative judgment is subversive of the constitutional harmony

and comity of instrumentalities. Pratap Bhanu Mehta argues that the evidence of judicial

overreach is now too overwhelming to be ignored. He concludes: It has to be admitted that the

line between appropriate judicial intervention and judicial overreach is often tricky... courts are

doing things because they can, not because they are right, legal or just. One may question the

wisdom of employing the judicial power to achieve a desirable social or economic end in the

absence of an explicit constitutional mandate to do so. John Gava in his commentary titled The

Rise of the Hero Judge has cautioned the use of judicial activism. He fears that the worst result

of activism is that the judges may end up losing the publics faith in their most important

attributethe perception that they are impartial referees deciding according to the rule of law.

Nevertheless it is obvious that unless the Executive and the Legislature begin to respond to the

needs of the citizens and discharge their responsibilities, public interest litigation and judicial

activism are bound to remain centre stage as long as courts continue to respond the way they do

now. As Justice Pandiyan, a former judge of the Supreme Court has said on judicial creativity:

In a country like ours [India] more than eighty percent of people are economically backward andthey are subjected to discrimination as a rule. In such an explosive situation causing adverse

effect on society, when the executive and legislature are apathetic and fail to discharge their

constitutional duties an


18/22

18

Article 21 of the Constitution of India -The Expanding Horizons

Introduction

The Constitution of India provides Fundamental Rights under Chapter III. These rights are

guaranteed by the constitution. One of these rights is provided under article 21 which reads as

follows:-

Article 21. Protection Of Life And Personal Liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or

personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Though the phraseology of Article 21 starts with negative word but the word No has been usedin relation to the word deprived. The object of the fundamental right under Article 21 is to

prevent encroachment upon personal liberty and deprivation of life except according to

procedure established by law. It clearly means that this fundamental right has been provided

against state only. If an act of private individual amounts to encroachment upon the personal

liberty or deprivation of life of other person. Such violation would not fall under the parameters

set for the Article 21. in such a case the remedy for aggrieved person would be either under

Article 226 of the constitution or under general law. But, where an act of private individual

supported by the state infringes the personal liberty or life of another person, the act will

certainly come under the ambit of Article 21. Article 21 of the Constitution deals with prevention

of encroachment upon personal liberty or deprivation of life of a person.

The state cannot be defined in a restricted sense. It includes Government Departments,

Legislature, Administration, Local Authorities exercising statutory powers and so on so forth,

but it does not include non-statutory or private bodies having no statutory powers. For example:

company, autonomous body and others. Therefore, the fundamental right guaranteed under

Article 21 relates only to the acts of State or acts under the authority of the State which are not

according to procedure established by law. The main object of Article 21 is that before a person

is deprived of his life or personal liberty by the State, the procedure established by law must be

strictly followed. Right to Life means the right to lead meaningful, complete and dignified life. Itdoes not have restricted meaning. It is something more than surviving or animal existence. The

meaning of the word life cannot be narrowed down and it will be available not only to every

citizen of the country. As far as Personal Liberty is concerned, it means freedom from physical

restraint of the person by personal incarceration or otherwise and it includes all the varieties of

rights other than those provided under Article 19 of the Constitution. Procedure established by

Law means the law enacted by the State. Deprived has also wide range of meaning under the


19/22

19

Constitution. These ingredients are the soul of this provision. The fundamental right under

Article 21 is one of the most important rights provided under the Constitution which has been

described as heart of fundamental rights by the Apex Court.

The scope of Article 21 was a bit narrow till 50s as it was held by the Apex Court in Gopalanscase that the contents and subject matter of Article 21 and 19 (1) (d) are not identical and they

proceed on total principles. In this case the word deprivation was construed in a narrow sense

and it was held that the deprivation does not restrict upon the right to move freely which came

under Article 19 (1) (d). at that time Gopalans case was the leading case in respect of Article 21

along with some other Articles of the Constitution, but post Gopalan case the scenario in respect

of scope of Article 21 has been expanded or modified gradually through different decisions of

the Apex Court and it was held that interference with the freedom of a person at home or

restriction imposed on a person while in jail would require authority of law. Whether the

reasonableness of a penal law can be examined with reference to Article 19, was the point in

issue after Gopalans case in the case of Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India , the Apex Court

opened up a new dimension and laid down that the procedure cannot be arbitrary, unfair or

unreasonable one. Article 21 imposed a restriction upon the state where it prescribed a procedure

for depriving a person of his life or personal liberty. This view has been further relied upon in a

case of Francis Coralie Mullin v.

The Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi and others as follows:

Article 21 requires that no one shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except by

procedure established by law and this procedure must be reasonable, fair and just and not

arbitrary, whimsical or fanciful. The law of preventive detention has therefore now to pass the

test not only for Article 22, but also of Article 21 and if the constitutional validity of any such

law is challenged, the court would have to decide whether the procedure laid down by such law

for depriving a person of his personal liberty is reasonable, fair and just. In another case of Olga

Tellis and others v. Bombay Municipal Corporation and others , it was further observed : Just as

a mala fide act has no existence in the eye of law, even so, unreasonableness vitiates law and

procedure alike. It is therefore essential that the procedure prescribed by law for depriving a

person of his fundamental right must conform the norms of justice and fair play. Procedure,

which is just or unfair in the circumstances of a case, attracts the vice of unreasonableness,

thereby vitiating the law which prescribes that procedure and consequently, the action taken

under it.As stated earlier, the protection of Article 21 is wide enough and it was further widenedin the case of

Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India and others in respect of bonded labour and weaker

section of the society. It lays down as follows:

Article 21 assures the right to live with human dignity, free from exploitation. The state is under

a constitutional obligation to see that there is no violation of the fundamental right of any person,

particularly when he belongs to the weaker section of the community and is unable to wage a


20/22

20

legal battle against a strong and powerful opponent who is exploiting him. Both the Central

Government and the State Government are therefore bound to ensure observance of the various

social welfare and labour laws enacted by Parliament for the purpose of securing to the workmen

a life of basic human dignity in compliance with the directive principles of the state policy.

The meaning of the word life includes the right to live in fair and reasonable conditions, right to

rehabilitation after release, right to live hood by legal means and decent environment. The

expanded scope of Article 21 has been explained by the Apex Court in the case of Unni Krishnan

v. State of A.P. and the Apex Court itself provided the list of some of the rights covered under

Article 21 on the basis of earlier pronouncements and some of them are listed below:

(1) The right to go abroad.

(2) The right to privacy.

(3) The right against solitary confinement.(4) The right against hand cuffing.

(5) The right against delayed execution.

(6) The right to shelter.

(7) The right against custodial death.

(8) The right against public hanging.

(9) Doctors assistance.

It was observed in Unni Krishnans case that Article 21 is the heart of Fundamental Rights and it

has extended the Scope of Article 21 by observing that the life includes the education as well as,as the right to education flows from the right to life.

As a result of expansion of the scope of Article 21, the Public Interest Litigations in respect of

children in jail being entitled to special protection, health hazards due to pollution and harmful

drugs, housing for beggars, immediate medical aid to injured persons, starvation deaths, the right

to know, the right to open trial, inhuman conditions in aftercare home have found place under it.

Through various judgments the Apex Court also included many of the non-justifiable Directive

Principles embodied under part IV of the Constitution and some of the examples are as under:

(a) Right to pollution free water and air.

(b) Protection of under-trial.(c) Right of every child to a full development.

(d) Protection of cultural heritage.

Maintenance and improvement of public health, improvement of means of communication,

providing human conditions in prisons, maintaining hygienic condition in slaughter houses have


21/22

21

also been included in the expanded scope of Article 21. this scope further has been extended

even to innocent hostages detained by militants in shrine who are beyond the Control of the state.

The Apex Court in the case of S.S. Ahuwalia v. Union of India and others it was held that in the

expanded meaning attributed to Article 21 of the Constitution, it is the duty of the State to create

a climate where members of the society belonging to different faiths, caste and creed live

together and, therefore, the State has a duty to protect their life, liberty, dignity and worth of an

individual which should not be jeopardized or endangered. If in any circumstance the state is not

able to do so, then it cannot escape the liability to pay compensation to the family of the person

killed during riots as his or her life has been extinguished in clear violation of Article 21 of the

Constitution. While dealing with the provision of Article 21 in respect of personal liberty,

Hon'ble Supreme Court put some restrictions in a case of Javed and others v. State of Hariyana,

AIR 2003 SC 3057 as follows: at the very outset we are constrained to observe that the law laid

down by this court in the decisions relied on either being misread or read divorced of the context.

The test of reasonableness is not a wholly subjective test and its contours are fairly indicated bythe Constitution. The requirement of reasonableness runs like a golden thread through the entire

fabric of fundamental rights. The lofty ideals of social and economic justice, the advancement of

the nation as a whole and the philosophy of distributive justice- economic, social and political-

cannot be given a go-by in the name of undue stress on fundamental rights and individual liberty.

Reasonableness and rationality, legally as well as philosophically, provide colour to the meaning

of fundamental rights and these principles are deducible from those very decisions which have

been relied on by the learned counsel for the petitioners.

The Apex Court led a great importance on reasonableness and rationality of the provision and it

is pointed out that in the name of undue stress on Fundamental Rights and Individual Liberty, theideals of social and economic justice cannot be given a go-by. Thus it is clear that the provision

Article 21 was constructed narrowly at the initial stage but the law in respect of life and personal

liberty of a person was developed gradually and a liberal interpretation was given to these words.

New dimensions have been added to the scope of Article21 from time to time. It imposed a

limitation upon a procedure which prescribed for depriving a person of life and personal liberty

by saying that the procedure which prescribed for depriving a person of life and personal liberty

by saying that the procedure must be reasonable, fair and such law should not be arbitrary,

whimsical and fanciful. The interpretation which has been given to the words life and personal

liberty in various decisions of the Apex Court, it can be said that the protection of life and

personal liberty has got multi dimensional meaning and any arbitrary, whimsical and fanciful act

of the State which deprived the life or personal liberty of a person would be against the provision

of Article 21 of the Constitution.


22/22

22

\Conclusion

The right to life is a very broad concept and is the most fundamental of all. In India, right to life

has been recognized under Article 21 of the Constitution which says that No person shall be

deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Person here includes both man and woman. Among various rights which are available to a

woman, the right to abortion is also believed to be one of the most essential and fundamental

right. Right to abortion has been recognized under right to privacy which is a part of right to

personal liberty and which emanates from right to life. But the question always arises whether an

unborn child should be considered as a human being and be given the status of a person or not.

There are various aspects such as religious, ethics, moral and legal values that rule over the

aspect of right to abortion. Abortion is severely condemned in all religions. But in spite of that

always the question arises whether the mother has a right to abortion or the child has a right to

life. Ronald Dworkin has made a detailed study on the issue of abortion. He did not accept the

extreme position taken by the derivative claimers of prohibition of abortion that, the fetus is a

complete moral person from the moment of conception. Hence the unborn has the right to live

and abortion is a murder or nearly a wrong as murder.

According to Dworkin a fetus has no interest before the third trimester. A fetus cannot feel pain

until late in pregnancy, because its brain is not sufficiently developed before then. The scientists

have agreed that fetal brain will be sufficiently developed to feel pain from approximately the

twenty sixth weeks. Thus, whether abortion is against the interest of a fetus must depend on

whether the fetus itself has interests, not on whether interests will develop if no abortion takes

place. Something that is not alive does not have interests. Also, just because something can

develop into a person does not mean it has interests either. Once a fetus can live on its own it

may have interests. This is only after the third trimester.

This paper has been divided into five chapters. Chapter II will examine Indian abortion laws.

Chapter III will look at the abortion laws in America will deal with the comparative analysis and

understanding of abortion. Chapter IV deals with conclusion and suggestions.

The Constitution of India provides Fundamental Rights under Chapter III. These rights are

guaranteed by the constitution. One of these rights is provided under article 21 which reads as

follows:-Article 21. Protection Of Life And Personal Liberty: No person shall be deprived of his

life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Date post:	04-Jun-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	umang0987
View:	225 times
Download:	0 times