Safeguarding Fundamental Human Rights in India: An Overview

Safeguarding Fundamental Human Rights in India: An Overview | By Princy Shivhare

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“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

-Nelson Mandela

“Human rights are not a privilege conferred by the government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity.”

- Mother Teresa

The world has witnessed myriads of scientific and technological advancements in its journey of development. However, in this pursuit, it is often forgotten that no development is sustainable if it does not respect and honor the human rights of the people.

What are human rights?

To be precise, human rights are the rights that are possessed by every human being, irrespective of his or her nationality, race, religion, sex, etc, simply by virtue of being a human. They are inherent in nature and without them, we cannot live as human beings. Human rights and fundamental freedom allow us to fully develop and use our human capabilities, our intelligence, and our conscience and to satisfy our physical, spiritual, and other needs.

By the virtue of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the nations of the world were specifically exhorted to act as the guardians of human rights. By 1966, the United Nations General Assembly adopted two important covenants which are at the same time both general and universal, one dealing with civil and political rights and the other with economic, social, and cultural rights. Both the covenants principally deal with rights that were to be enjoyed by individuals.

As human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent, equal attention and urgent consideration should be given to the implementation, promotion, and protection of all the rights. Many countries have passed legislation to bring their laws as far as possible in conformity with the spirit and letter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments.

India is a sovereign, socialist, democratic Republic. Long before these international covenants came into force, the Indian Constitution has guaranteed several rights for its citizens which are known as fundamental rights as enshrined in Part III of the Constitution. Right to Life, Liberty, Equality, Dignity, Freedom of speech and expression besides religious freedom that includes right to profess, practice and propagate one’s own belief, faith and worship and right against exploitation and rights of minorities towards culture and to establish educational institutions are some of the enforceable rights which cannot be infringed upon by the State through executive action.

“The Fundamental Rights” have been accorded prime importance in the Constitution of India. There have been judicial pronouncements which have upheld the superiority of Fundamental Rights as provided in the Constitution of India.

The Supreme Court of India in the Kesavanand Bharti case, Minerva Mills and I.R. Coelho case has upheld that though fundamental rights, as such, are not immune from amendment block, particular rights or part thereof may be held as basic features which cannot be amended by exercising the power of amendment under Article 368 of the Constitution of India. With the passage of time and new developments, the concept of rights in India underwent reviews and renewed interpretations by the judiciary. The Right to Life and Liberty, which occupies a place of pride, is the most sacred and cherished right. Prior to the decision in Maneka Gandhi’s case, in the year 1978, Article 21 of the Constitution of India was construed narrowly only as a guarantee against executive action unsupported by law. However, this case opened up a new dimension and laid down that it imposed a limitation upon law-making as well, that while prescribing a procedure for depriving a person of his life or personal liberty, it must prescribe a procedure which is reasonable, fair, and just. Over the years, human rights jurisprudence has developed allowing the judiciary the power of judicial review. The main objective is to secure the paramountcy of the Constitution in regard to fundamental rights that represent the basic human rights of the people.

Human rights of the people are now fundamental edifices of social, political, and cultural context, some of them are outlined below:

The right of a person not to be subjected to “bonded labor” or to unfair conditions of labor.
The right of a bonded laborer to the rehabilitation after release.
Right to livelihood by means which are not illegal.
Right to a decent environment and reasonable accommodation.
An obligation upon the State is to preserve the life of every person by offering immediate medical aid to every patient, regardless of the question of whether he is innocent or guilty. The criminal law operates after the life of the injured is saved.
Right to the appropriate life insurance policy within the paying capacity and means of the insured.
Right to good health.
Right to food.
Right to water.
Right to education.
Right to reputation.
Right of women to be treated with decency and proper dignity.
Right to a speedy trial.
Right against handcuffing.
Right against custodial violence.
Right to privacy.
Right to freedom from malnutrition.
Right to information.

SOME IMPORTANT JUDGEMENTS REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS:-

In Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma v. State of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court opined that gender injustice, pollution, environmental degradation, malnutrition, social ostracism of the Dalits are various forms of violations of human rights. The presumption of innocence is also a human right.

In recent years, the Apex Court has been taking a lead in the protection of the rights of the vulnerable communities like LGBTQ, etc and have come up with many landmark judgments.

In the case of National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India declared transgender people to be a 'third gender' and affirmed that the fundamental rights granted under the Constitution of India will be equally applicable to transgender people. The Apex Court directed the centre and the State governments to take steps to treat them as socially and educationally backward class and to extend the reservation in case of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments. This judgment is a major step towards gender equality in India.

While deciding in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, the Supreme Court gave a historic and unanimous decision on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality. The Apex Court ruled that sexual orientation is an intrinsic element of liberty, dignity, privacy, individual autonomy, and equality, and that intimacy between consenting adults of the same-sex is beyond the legitimate interests of the state.

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHT COMMISSION

The growing concern regarding violation of human rights led to the enactment of the Protection of Human Rights Act, which provided for the constitution of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), State Human Rights Commission in the states, and the Human Rights Courts for protection of Human Rights.

The NHRC came into being in October 1993. It is in conformity with the Paris Principles, adopted at the first international workshop of national institutions for promotion and protection of human rights held in October 1991, and endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations by its Regulation 48/134 of 20 December 1993. It is an embodiment of India's concern for the promotion and protection of Human Rights.

During the last 26 years, the NHRC has endeavored to protect and promote human rights in the country for the common masses including poor, under-privileged and backward classes, rights of the elderly, women, children, transgender, and elimination of bonded labor.

Challenges:-

The main issues where the majority of human rights violations in India take place are as under:-

Failure in taking action by the police
Unlawful Detention
False imprisonment
Custodial Violence
Illegal Arrest
Harassment of Prisoners
Atrocities on SCs and STs
Bonded Labor and Child Labor
Child Marriage
Sexual Harassment and indignity to women
Exploitation of Women

The NHRC, by way of recent innovations, has tried to enhance its outreach. Some important steps in this regard are—online complaint registration through HRCNet portal, provision for the authorities to upload the reports directly on the HRCNet portal, taking on board the SHRCs in the HRCNet portal to avoid duplication of cases conducting video conferencing with the States to follow up the submission of reports, involving around three lakhs common Service Centres for registration of complaints, revamping the website where the status and all the orders of the cases are uploaded and a dedicated MADAD counter which assists the complainants in filing complaints. It is the cardinal duty of the state and the non-state actors to work in unison to enable the best promotion and protection of the human rights of the common man in the country and overcome all the challenges.

CONCLUSION

India has performed magnificently when it comes to safeguarding the human rights of the common man. The Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, and autonomous institutions like NHRC, etc. have all contributed towards creating a social framework where human rights are ensured to all. There are challenges but they can be met with the concerted efforts of all.

To conclude, Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said:

“I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus, the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of man and woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be usurpation hardly worth fighting for.”

Princy Shivhare

B.A.LL.B(Hons.)

2019-2024

Law School,

Banaras Hindu University

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