Category: Fundamental Rights
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Issue of Self-identification and Absence of Proper Mechanism: NALSA vs. UOI
Introduction The landmark judgement of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v Union of India and Others (hereinafter NALSA) upheld the right of the transgender persons to be identified as the ‘third gender’, apart from the binary notion of male and female. A writ petition was filed by the NALSA in 2012, on behalf of the…
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Right to Water in India: Entitlement without Obligations
Water is undisputedly indispensable for human existence. Internationally, right to water has been interpreted as right to access water, implying water to be an economic good[1]. This implies that the State is obligated to only provide the means to supply water but it treats water as a commodity that should be ‘affordable to all’. In…
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A need for breaking the archaic shackles
Introduction The Supreme Court of India has held Senior Lawyer and Activist, Prashant Bhushan guilty of the offence of contempt of court for his tweets, through which he criticised the Chief Justice of India and questioned the court’s silence in times when its actions were demanded the most. He has been charged a fine of…
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Suspension and taking down of social media accounts by intermediaries: Violation of Article 19?
In September 2017, Twitter refused to suspend President Trump’s account despite his seemingly threatening tweets regarding North Korean Dictator, on grounds of the former’s tweets being ‘newsworthy’ and of ‘public interest’.[i] However, in 2019, Twitter India suspended Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde’s account twice.[ii] Twitter had blocked Hegde’s account on grounds of ‘depicting hateful imagery’, when…
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Unemployment due to COVID-19 – A threat to Right to Life
Introduction The current global scenario in the wake of the pandemic has led to large scale unemployment, with the jobs plummeting by the day. Nearly 430 million enterprises globally have been hit hard due to the lockdown.[1] Some of the worst-hit sectors are aviation, retails, production, tourism, entertainment and realty. According to UN agencies, more…
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Right to Legal Aid in India: A Humanitarian Approach
Introduction A person is entitled to Human rights by virtue of being a Human. These Inalienable rights are traditionally known as ‘natural rights’ and one can say that these are derived from the divine law of nature. At the global level, it has acquired great significance through the Universal Declaration of Human right (UDHR) in…
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