ARTICLE 21: FUNDAMENTAL TO FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS - ENHANCED VIEW

''No person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.''

1- Post-1980, the Supreme Court has virtually been on an overdrive to maintain the sanctity of right to life guaranteed to all — citizens and foreigners — under Article 21 of the Constitution.

If in 1978, in Maneka Gandhi case, it ruled that the expression ''life'' did not mean mere animal existence but with dignity, it added another legal leaf in 2008 in Deepak Bajaj case, when it said right to life encompassed a person's reputation as well.

This new meaning of Article 21 helped the court in subsequent years-

1-      to give relief to prisoners

2-It asked the government to clean up Ganga and Yamuna as it read right to clean drinking water a part of right to life

It banned child labour, for it found that this stunted right to life

It ordered closure of polluting industries as it saw the noxious fumes stifling citizen's right to clean air and environment, which again was included within the ambit of right to life.

A whole new catena of rights was read into Article 21, which embodies the right to life and liberty. These, in various decisions, have been held to

include the right to legal aid, right to go abroad, right to reputation, right to shelter, right to privacy, right against sexual harassment of women, right to education and right to clean and healthy 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.[8] 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 Krishnan’s 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.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 to every child to a full development.

(d) Protection of cultural heritage.