Beyond the Text: How the Supreme Court Breathed New Life into Right to Life Under Article 21

Abstract

During the British regime in India, human rights were widely violated by the rulers. Therefore, the framers of the Constitution, most of whom suffered long incarceration under the British, had a very positive attitude towards these rights. Accordingly, human rights were incorporated in the Constitution under the title of ‘Fundamental Rights’ in Part III, Articles 12-35. In his closing address to the Constituent Assembly, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar emphasized that the principle of liberty, equality and fraternity were not to be treated as separate entities but as a trinity. They formed the union or trinity in the sense that to divorce one from another was to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty could not be divorced from equality. Equality could not be divorced from liberty. Nor could equality and liberty be divorced from fraternity.…. Accordingly, the Constitution puts due emphasis on equality, fraternity and liberty. As the protector and guardian of fun-damental rights, from the very beginning the Supreme Court has adopted the state that it acts as the ‘sentinel on the qui vive’ vis a vis fundamental rights and has stressed this role in several cases.