Right To Life Essay

1. Introduction

“Every human being is entitled to certain necessities like food, water, cloth, shelter, health which are basic for sustaining life, without which one cannot live as human beings. Thus ‘Human Rights’ are those rights, which are essential to human beings to live as human beings.” “Human Rights” means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by Courts in India.

“When Human Rights are guaranteed by the written Constitution they are called as fundamental rights by some Constitution. Unlike an ordinary right, a fundamental right is an interest, which is protected and guaranteed by the written Constitution.

No right to die

In Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab, the Supreme Court held that “right to life” under Article 21 does not include “right to die” or “right to be killed”.

3.3. Right to livelihood

In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, popularly known as the ‘pavement dweller’s case the Court has ruled that the word ‘life’ in Article 21 includes the ‘right to livelihood’ also.

3.4. Right to privacy

In R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court has expressly held the “right to privacy’, or the right to be let alone is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. A citizen has a right to safeguard the privacy of its own, his family, marriage, procreation, motherhood, child bearing and education among other matters. It also held that the State or its officials have no authority in law to impose prior restraint on publication of defamatory matter. The public officials can take action only after the publication if it is found to be false.

3.5. Right to travel abroad

In Satwant Singh v. Assistant Passport Officer, New Delhi, the Supreme Court further extended the scope of this Article and held that the “right to travel abroad’ was part of a person’s ‘personal liberty’ within the meaning of Article 21 of the Constitution and, therefore, no person could be deprived of his right to travel abroad except according to procedure established by