Right to life (a blessing or a nuisance)
Introduction
Article 21 “ protection of life and personal liberty. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”
This actually shows that article 21 focuses on the protection of life and also personal liberty. The following discussion is going to include if right to life is a nuisance or a blessing.
Article 21 because of the word person uses it applies to both citizens and also non citizens of India. Right to life includes one’s right to shelter, right to acquire free education for the pupils of 6 years up to 14 years of age ,right to privacy , right to die and also right to a clean environment, right to medical care.
Right to free education up to 14 years
Article 21 by providing free education to people up to the age of 14 has decreased the rate of illiteracy in India this is therefore a blessing.
Right to shelter and clean environment
Secondly right to shelter and clean environment is a blessing as this saves the health of the people the well being of the people is catered for through this article.
In the case of Chameli Singh vs State Of U.P the supreme court held that “Right to shelter when used as an essential requisite to the right to live, should be deemed to have been guaranteed as a fundamental right.”
Right to die
There are certain restrictions which are stated of the right to die which is the will of someone to end there life due to the illness of a person this is most probably for those in the ICU however the youth of these days decided to end their lives due to their own personal issues like love life and also uneasiness of not being able to fit in society.
Right to medical care
Moving on there is also right to medical care this right states that no person on the basis of their gender are to be deprived of attaining medication or the doctor’s.
Right to reputation
By reputation this means the legacy of the dignity of someone. This must not be violated due to the right to speech and freedom of expression.
Right to personal liberty
More to that there is the right to personal liberty the right to liberty is were one is able to exercise their will and also take note of the restrictions which will be put by the law it self. Personal liberty also includes the right to reputation as in the case of Maneka Gandhi vs Union of India the supreme court states that
Maneka Ghandhi vs Union of India
facts of the case
The petitioner had issued her passport on the first of July 1976 as per passport act of 1976 and 2nd of july 1977 the regional passport of Delhi gave an order that she is supposed to surrender her passport without a reason for doing so.Due to this the petitioner approached the supreme court claiming that her right to liberty had been taken from her.
In this case the court gave a judgement that the right to live is not merely a physical right but includes the ambit of the right to live with human dignity, hence human dignity is part of the right to reputation.
Analysis /judgement
Right to life is to a larger extent a blessing because of the privileges which come with it which include one’s right to shelter, right to acquire free education for the pupils of 6 years up to 14 years of age ,right to privacy , and also right to a clean environment, right to medical care. To a lesser extent there is the right to die which as resulted in many suicidal cases in India as one feels they are able to take their life whenever they feel it is necessary to them. Lastly right to life in article 21 has a closer link to article 19 which gives right to freedom of speech an expression.
Author: Phusewa Mihlotie,
Lovely Proffessional University
Well said…every human should not be deprived from his or her own rights during a lifetime season.