An Analytical Study On The Working Of The Indian Constitution In Realizing The Expectation
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 26, 2022
- 1 min read
An Analytical Study On The Working Of The Indian Constitution In Realizing The Expectation That It Is A Human Rights Document
Shinde Sheetal Narayanrao, Academic Fellow, National Law School of India University, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
The idea of Human Rights is hardwired into the Indian constitution. Though the text of the Indian Constitution predates all the international Human Rights regimes, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International, the spirit of Art.1 and Art. 3 of the UDHR are manifested in Art. 21 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has interpreted it in an expansive manner and broadened its scope to include many un-enumerated rights within it. As a result, new strands of jurisprudence have emerged within the realm of Art 21, such as the Right to a clean environment, right to livelihood, right to privacy, Right to individual autonomy and Right to health and hygiene, apart from the protection from the arbitrary actions of the state. Hence, to a large extent, Art. 21 has succeeded in realizing the constitutional vision of the human rights document. Despite this, there are many grey areas, such as situations where National Security is contrasted with Human Rights or problems like the Covid-19 pandemic; or humanitarian situations like refugee and asylum seekers issues; there is a regulatory chill in applying the spirit of the principles of Right to Life. The paper critically analyses how Art. 21 fares in realizing the expectation that the Constitution of India is a Human Rights document.
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