{"id":42509,"date":"2025-05-01T19:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T14:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=42509"},"modified":"2025-05-01T19:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T14:04:22","slug":"right-to-digital-access-article-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/01-05-2025\/right-to-digital-access-article-21","title":{"rendered":"Right To Digital Access Part of Article 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme court emphasized that digital access is a crucial component of the Right to Life under Article 21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The judgment was based on a petition filed by a group of acid attack survivors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They raised concerns about how disabled people, including acid attack victims, find it nearly impossible to successfully complete the digital KYC processes, which include visual tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court Ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The court said that the state has an obligation to provide an inclusive digital ecosystem to the marginalised, underprivileged, vulnerable, disabled, and historically-excluded sections of society.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Directive to Improve KYC Accessibility:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Court mandated that alternative verification mechanisms must be introduced for those unable to blink or use facial recognition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also called for full compliance with <strong>Section 46 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016,<\/strong> which mandates accessibility in electronic and print media.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Websites, mobile applications, and digital platforms must be made compliant with universal accessibility standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The state\u2019s obligations under <strong>Article 21,<\/strong> with <strong>Articles 14, 15 and 38<\/strong> of the Constitution, must encompass the responsibility to ensure that digital infrastructure, government portals, and financial technologies are universally accessible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Article 21 of the Indian Constitution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Article 21 <\/strong>is part of the <strong>Fundamental Rights, Part III<\/strong> of the Constitution. It is guaranteed to all persons, citizens and non-citizens alike.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It places a restriction on the state from arbitrarily interfering with a person&#8217;s life and liberty.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Over time, courts have interpreted it to also impose <strong>positive obligations<\/strong> on the state to ensure a dignified life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Rights Included Under Article 21 ( Judicial Interpretation)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><thead><tr><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>Right<\/strong><\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><strong>Landmark Case<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Right to livelihood<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Right to clean environment<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Subhash Kumar v. State of Bihar (1991)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Right to education (prior to Article 21A)<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka (1992)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Right to privacy<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Right to die with dignity<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Common Cause v. Union of India (2018)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/sc-upholds-inclusive-digital-access-as-a-part-of-fundamental-right-to-life\/article69508394.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Supreme court emphasized that digital access is a crucial component of the Right to Life under Article 21.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The judgment was based on a petition filed by a group of acid attack survivors.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">They raised concerns about how disabled people, including acid attack victims, find it nearly impossible to successfully complete the digital KYC processes, which include visual tasks.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/01-05-2025\/right-to-digital-access-article-21\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42509"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42533,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42509\/revisions\/42533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}