Article 21: A Way towards Transfiguration

The right to life and personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 in the part III of the Indian Constitution is guaranteed not only to its citizens but also to the foreigners. This right under Part III of the Indian Constitution is considered as the most precious, sacrosanct, fundamental as well as heart of all the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. In other words, denial of right to life and personal liberty is denial of other fundamental rights reason being there is no meaning of other rights unless the right to life and personal liberty is secured and protected. The Indian judiciary over the period of seven decades since the Constitution of India has enacted expanded the horizon of right to life and personal liberty by pronouncing various landmark judgements. This research paper is categorized mainly in four major parts. In the first part of this papers, a detailed information of Article 21 of Indian constitution has been discussed thoroughly. Moreover, a detailed discussion on the words interpreted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in its landmark judgements. In the second part of this paper, authors tried to incorporate the constituent assembly debates on Article 21, in addition to this, the concept of “due process of law” and “procedure established by law” has been discussed citing relevant case laws. The third part of the paper is dedicated to the international scenario on Right to Life and Liberty, for that purpose there is comparative study on British, US and Japanese Constitution. Finally, in the last part of the paper, relevant Indian case laws has been discussed which changed as well as leads to the transfiguration of the concept of the right to life and personal liberty envisaged under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution since its genesis. The primary sources which are relied upon for the purpose of completing this research paper are judgements of Supreme Court of India and United States, debates of constituent assembly, and constitutions of India, Japan, United Kingdom and United States whereas secondary sources which are relied upon are commentaries by renowned legal jurists, research papers, articles, newspapers, etc. Henceforth, this paper deal with the meaning of this provision, the constituent assembly debate over this provision, its evolution through judicial interpretation, global scenario and relevant Indian as well as foreign case laws.