The Rights Read into Article 21

In one line

Article 21 now contains, by construction, a body of rights none of which appears in its eighteen words, and they divide into four groups: the necessities of a dignified life, the guarantees of fair process, the protections of the person, and the conditions of a liveable environment.

The list, grouped

Group one: the necessities of a dignified life

Group two: the guarantees of fair process

A fair procedure, which is the due process element itself.

A speedy trial.

Free legal aid, drawing on article 39A.

The presumption of innocence and a fair hearing, corresponding to articles 10 and 11(1) of the Universal Declaration.

Protection against handcuffing and against solitary confinement except as the law permits.

And compensation for a violation, in the writ jurisdiction. [Compensation in Public Law] takes it.

Group three: the protections of the person

Freedom from torture and from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which Part III nowhere states.

The rights of prisoners, since dignity is not forfeited by conviction.

Protection against custodial violence.

Privacy, located across Part III and principally in articles 19 and 21.

Reputation, as an element of the dignity the article protects.

And a dignified death, in the sense of the manner of dying, which the courts have treated as within the article.

Group four: the conditions of a liveable environment

A clean and healthy environment, drawing on article 48A and article 51A(g).

Clean air and water.

Freedom from noise pollution.

And protection against hazardous industry, which produced the absolute liability principle.

The four tests for a new claim

This is the part that matters, because an examination question will describe a situation rather than name a right.

Is it a necessity of a dignified life, or a preference? Nutrition qualifies, a standard of amenity does not.

Is the obligation one the State already bears? The strongest cases require the enforcement of an existing statutory or constitutional duty rather than the creation of a new one.

Is the deprivation attributable to the State? Article 21 runs against the State under article 12, so a claim about purely private conduct needs a statute or one of the four horizontal articles.

And can a court give an effective remedy? A claim whose satisfaction requires a policy the court cannot frame or supervise is one the court will decline or convert into a direction to consider.