Are people aware of their fundamental rights?

INTRODUCTION

It’s been more than 70 years since India got its Independence, the legal system has changed.There were many amendments to the constitution during this period of time. But still, we can’t say that every citizen of our country is aware of his fundamental rights. There are many reasons for lack of awareness in people, illiteracy and over population are at the top. People are not even aware how the legal system works and, so how can we assume that they know about fundamental rights? It is a well-known fact that many people do not even approach the court because appointing a legal counsel is a costly affair nowadays. They do not know that they have a right to free legal aid under Article 39A of Constitution. The right to free legal aid comes under the purview of Article 21 and 39A as a right that the court can’t deny.

We need to understand what is the need forlegal and human rights awareness. It helps people to understand what is a right and what is a wrong, it helps people to raise voice against wrongs committed against them. For instance, the passing of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 was passed to ban the mal practice of sati. There are many incidences where the government passed laws for the interest of people when they raised voice against wrongs committed against them.

LEGAL AID

National Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, (NLSA) has been selected to take appropriate measures for spreading legal awareness amongst the individuals. Under Section 2(1)(c) of the NLSA, Legal Service includes the rendering of any service in the conduct of any case or other legal proceeding before any court or other authority or tribunal and the giving of advice on any legal matter; the Legal Services Authority Act was passed to provide free and competent legal services to the weaker section of the society. In other words, to enable the people to get justice.

Section 7 (h) of Advocates Act, 1961 speaks about legal education and to put down standards of such education in consultation with Universities in India which imparts such education and the State Bar Councils.

The concept of legal aid is necessary for preservation of rule of law i.e. essential for an orderly society. Legal aid is an obligation upon the government and not an assistance.Justice P.N.Bhagwatisaid that, legal aid means providing an arrangement in the society so that the mission of administration of justice becomes easily accessible and is not out of reach of those who have to resort to it for enforcement of its given to them by law, the poor and illiterate should be able to approach the courts and their ignorance and poverty should not be an impediment in the way of their obtaining justice from the courts.

But the legal aid system under LSA act has failed in imparting legal aid to the public as the people do not have trust in the free legal aid, lack of awareness regarding free legal aid, authorities havefailed to deliver real legal aid and less number of lawyers who are willing to impart free legal aid.

While addressing the valedictory function of the 17th All India Meet of State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) in Nagpur, the 46thCJI of India Ranjan Gogoi said that the absence of legal awareness was the “root cause” of “deception, exploitation and deprivation” of the rights and benefits of the masses. He also said that awareness about ones right can be used as a powerful tool to bring about social and economic progress in society.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Fundamental rights are those rights that vest in the humans from the day of their birth, meaning even a criminal or a prisoner of war or an enemy of state they all have their basic fundamental right. But it can be said they lose some of their rights because of their acts. You cannot take away the fundamental rights of a human from him, these rights vest in him. The Constitution of India has vested in us fundamental rights under Part III and are divided under 6 heads. The fundamental rights give us right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, right to minorities and right to constitutional remedies. It is not wrong to say that many people think that they know about their fundamental rights but they are wrong. The fundamental rights guarantee all the basic human rights that are considered a right of a human being and they are in accordance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The meaning and explanation of fundamental rights is not as simple as it seems to be. It is one of the reasons why even some well-educated people do not know about their rights. For instance, the Article 21 of constitution states that a person has right to life and personal liberty, no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The simple reading suggests that a person has a right to life and has a right to live his life on his own accords under the procedure established by law (according to the rules and laws established by law). But, the Article has very wide definition and till date rights are being added under its purview. It will be not wrong to state that this right is an umbrella law. Right to reputation, Right to live with dignity, Right against sexual harassment, Right to privacy and many other rights come under the ambit of Article 21. The above stated example would have given you a slight idea of what are fundamental right but it is not sufficient to define them.

It is quite remarkable that the constitution framers knew about the future because they have also defined the constitutional remedies under Article 32 against violation of fundamental rights. Right to remedy is also a fundamental right.

The government of India states that,for being a good and responsible citizen of the country, first one must be aware of the fundamental rights and duties. Comprehending all the rules and regulations proposed by the government may boost every citizen in achieving their responsibilities towards the country. Responsible citizens build their community a good habitat to live by following the principles and helping others.

But the government must understand in order to expect something like this from its citizen, they must first impart awareness in people about fundamental and legal rights. Without imparting the knowledge about these rights how can they expect, them to fulfil their duties? It is somewhat like asking an answer without giving question to the candidate.

COVID 19 AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

In India on 25th March, 2020 lockdown was declared due to the Covid outbreak all over world. Under the lockdown the people were not allowed to move freely and restricted to stay at home. The Union and state governments issued notifications and guidelines asking people to avoid gatherings and audiences and maintain social distancing with each other to supress the spread of the virus. The Bombay HC stated in the time of lockdown that “In such a situation, in my opinion, this is right time to remind ourselves the fundamental duties of a citizen. Often, citizens show serious concern about their fundamental rights, but then forget the fundamental duties”. The government pleaded before the citizens to stay at home and protect themselves from the deadly virus.

But the question that was raised in the mind of people was whether the decision of government to stay at home is violative of fundamental right or not?

The first concern that was raised by the people was objection against restriction on movement. The people who raised this concern were those who were migrant labourers and people who live away from their home because of employment. Among these people the majority were daily bread earner. Due to the lockdown most of the industries were closed as a result they were forced to head back home fearing starvation. The companies were also not able to pay salaries of the employees. The question raised was is this action violative of right to livelihood under Article 21 or not.

It was contended that the government should have made arrangements for shelters, food and other items for people who were affected by the order of lockdown because government can’t deny people these rights under the light of lockdown. As even in a state of emergency the government cant deny the right to life, as it was held by, the Supreme Court in Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985 SCC (3) 545), that ‘right to livelihood’ was borne out of the ‘right to life’, as no person can live without the means of living.

The government is also expected to provide clean and healthy environment and free medical help but the seeing current situation we can say the government has failed to do so.

Another problem the government is facing now is to impart education to the children because the lockdown is affecting the children’s education severely. Hence, it is necessary that steps be taken by the government to start online classes to the extent possible to reduce crowding in schools and colleges.

There is a concern as to the right to privacy as the Arogya setu app shares your location and personal data with the government at all times.

The government successfully conveyed information regarding the disease, precautions, and the threat it poses. The citizens also have right to information about the measures taken up by the authoritiesand information about the current situation. But a small notice before the employment of a lockdown is against the right to information, because people have suffered due to this decision.

Apart from the above stated rights there are many other rights and they are right to walk in parks, right to receive part salary from employer, right to travel to meet parents or family, etc.  Governments need to take a step

RAISING AWARENESS

A large number of Indian citizens are illiterate and they live in rural India. Hence the focus of government should be more towards rural India. In order to impartawareness,the government at rural level should start campaigns to make people aware of their rights.

The Supreme Court in State of Maharashtra vs. ManbhaiPragaji Vashi (1995) 5 SCC 730, held that to impart free legal aid we must have good lawyers and for good lawyers we must have good colleges and universities who can help law students to evolve into good lawyers. But for that we need to have a separate budget for improving the conditions of legal education.

The legislature passed the NLSA and State Legal Services Authority Act to help people to get free legal aid. The Code of Civil Procedure also says that it is the duty of the court to give free legal aid and give either of the party a legal representative if the party can’t afford one. But the government must understand that other than statutory laws and programs there is a need for a separate fund as to attract lawyers to take up cases, because most of the time the lawyers do not take cases for free legal aid.

The state’s primary object should be equal justice for all. Legal assistance seeksthat the constitutional commitment is fulfilled and that equal justice is made available to the poorer and weaker sections of society. But despite all the efforts to give free legal the government has failed to achieve it. There is still a long wat to go for the government.

CONCLUSION

The government has failed at many steps in imparting awareness of fundamental and legal rights. The government needs to take action for imparting knowledge of these rights among its citizen and also convey them the true meaning of their rights. In the time of this pandemic it becomes even more important for the government to do so. But we can’t deny that government has worked for imparting legal awareness in people.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad once in his speech said that, “The Government has also partnered with the UNDP to commence a decade long Access to Justice for Marginalized PeopleProject, which is being implemented in eight States of India with the highest proportion of people living in poverty. Our focus is also on the North East and Jammu and Kashmir. The aim of these projects is to strengthen legal aid and legal empowerment for the marginalized. We have already imparted legal literacy to about 20lakh people in 62 districts.”

These statements assure us that the government is working for imparting legal awareness but this is not sufficient enough, they need to apply more resources and man power for this work.

The government should use new methods of imparting legal awareness like using social as a means of imparting social awareness.