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Civil & Political Rights begins ……..
This cluster of rights is vertical in nature, enforceable only against the state and its instrumentalities. None of the rights are absolute, and hence are subject to ‘reasonable restrictions’ the specific interest of the community as well as of the State. The state can through legislation restrict reasonably the freedoms of Act 19(1) on the basis of grounds in clauses (2) to (6) of Article 19 of the Constitution. These restrictions also seek to circumscribe the extent to which the state can curb the exercise of the fundamental freedoms. The courts will evaluate the validity of restrictions on the basis of a two-fold test– the reasonableness of the restriction and whether it falls within the grounds on the basis of which restrictions can be imposed.
Rights to Life and Personal Liberty
Right to Life
Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees all citizens and non- citizens protections of life and personal liberty. In Francis Coralie v. Union Territory of Delhi11 the Supreme Court interpreted the right to life broadly us:
The Right to Life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessities of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter and facilities for reading, writing and expressing oneself in diverse forms, freely moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow human beings.
The Supreme Court, elaborating in Ramsharan Autyanuprasi v. Union of India stated that life is all those things that give meaning to an individual’s life, the scope of Article 21 including tradition, heritage and culture, and preservation of the same. The expansive interpretation of Article 21 by the judiciary has lead to the inclusion of several rights within the right to life, and to speedy justice to the status of a Fundamental Right.
To be continued…………