Constitutional Law
Essays on what the Constitution actually requires of the state, and on the distance between a right and a remedy. Article 21 has been read to cover a great deal, from a road in reasonable condition to the conditions of a dignified life. The harder question, and the one these essays keep returning to, is what a person can actually do about it: who is liable, in which forum, on what proof, and whether the right comes with a procedure attached or only a sentence in a judgment.
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Nine Judges Have Been Asked to Abolish Public Interest Litigation. History Says Otherwise.
Public interest litigation gave India most of what Article 21 now means. A nine-judge bench is being asked to abolish it, and costs of twenty lakh rupees are doing the work in the meantime.
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The Right to Safe Roads, and What a Pothole Death Is Worth
A pothole death is now worth six lakh rupees in Maharashtra, because a court treated it as a breach of Article 21. Where that right comes from, and why almost nobody can enforce it.
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Why a Social Media Ban for Children Would Fail the Constitution
A blanket ban on children's social media would fail India's proportionality test and silence children who are speakers in their own right.