{"id":52591,"date":"2025-08-29T18:38:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=52591"},"modified":"2025-09-03T12:51:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:21:52","slug":"foreigners-right-to-liberty-article-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/29-08-2025\/foreigners-right-to-liberty-article-21","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Foreigners too Have the Right to Liberty under Article 21\u2019: High Court\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to a Bangladeshi woman accused of forgery and illegal stay, ruling that <strong>Article 21&#8217;s right to personal liberty applies to foreigners<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the Recent Ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Punjab and Haryana High Court emphasized that foreigners also have a right to personal liberty, and prolonged detention without the ability to furnish sureties would cause <strong>\u201cirreversible injustice.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The word <strong>\u2018person\u2019 <\/strong>in Article 21 is wide enough to cover not only citizens but also foreigners.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>State has an obligation to protect the liberty<\/strong> of such foreigners and ensure that their liberty is not deprived except in accordance with the procedure established by law\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also acknowledged the difficulty for undocumented migrants to furnish sureties and said bail conditions cannot be so harsh that they effectively deny freedom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Article 21 of the Indian Constitution&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/fundamental-rights\/\">fundamental right<\/a> to protection of life and personal liberty except by a procedure established by law.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It ensures certain safeguards against arbitrary deprivation of life and liberty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It protects the right to life, which includes living with dignity, the right to livelihood, and a healthy environment, as well as personal liberty, such as the freedom to move, reside, and work lawfully.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Interpretation of Article 21 by Supreme Court judgments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Early Interpretation:<\/strong> \u200bIn <strong>A.K. Gopalan v. The State of Madras<\/strong>, the Supreme Court held that personal liberty means the <strong>\u2018liberty of the body,\u2019<\/strong> which is freedom from arrest and detention, from false detention.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Broadening of Scope: <\/strong>In the case of <strong>R.C. Cooper v. Union of India (1970),<\/strong> the court held that the word personal liberty would not only include<strong> Article 21 but also include the 6 Fundamental Freedoms given under Article 19 (1).<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In <strong>Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978),<\/strong> the Supreme Court held that the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 is not limited to mere animal existence but includes the<strong> right to live with dignity.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to Livelihood &amp; Shelter: In Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985), <\/strong>the court recognized the right to livelihood as an integral part of the right to life under Article 21.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It held that the eviction of pavement dwellers without providing alternative arrangements would violate their right to life and personal liberty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to Dignity &amp; Safe Environment: In Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan (1997<\/strong>), the court held that the right to a safe and secure working environment is a fundamental right flowing from Article 21.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to Privacy: In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)<\/strong> judgment, the Supreme Court recognized the right to privacy as a fundamental right protected under Article 21.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to Die with Dignity: In Common Cause v. Union of India (2018)<\/strong>, the court legalized passive euthanasia and recognized the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/chandigarh\/hc-grants-bail-to-bangladeshi-woman-foreigners-right-liberty-10214921\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to a Bangladeshi woman accused of forgery and illegal stay, ruling that Article 21&#8217;s right to personal liberty applies to foreigners.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Article 21 of the Indian Constitution\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees the fundamental right to protection of life and personal liberty except by a procedure established by law.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It ensures certain safeguards against arbitrary deprivation of life and liberty.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It protects the right to life, which includes living with dignity, the right to livelihood, and a healthy environment, as well as personal liberty, such as the freedom to move, reside, and work lawfully.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/29-08-2025\/foreigners-right-to-liberty-article-21\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":52611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/08\/foreigners-right-to-liberty-article-21.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52591","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=52591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52858,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52591\/revisions\/52858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}