Article 22, Constitution

57 Landmark Constitutional Cases: Complete Notes

About this topic ▶ Watch this part of the lecture (0:00) These notes cover the 57 most important cases of Indian Constitutional Law . They are the cases that keep coming up in LL.B. examinations, in judiciary examinations and in every serious discussion of constitutional law. Every case is studied…

411 min read 16 Oct 2026

B.N.S.S.

The objectives of criminal procedure are crucial for the effective functioning of the criminal justice system.

201 min read 9 Sep 2026

B.N.S.S. Case Law

Introduction : This case addresses whether requiring an accused person to undergo medical tests, such as providing blood and semen samples, violates the constitutional protection against self-incrimination under Article…

255 min read 9 Sep 2026

Constitution II One Shot

A child born in India before July 1, 1987, automatically acquired Indian citizenship regardless of their parents' nationality.

57 min read 9 Sep 2026

Constitutional Law II: Complete Notes

Constitutional Law II deals with civil liberties. It is studied in eight units, from the question of who is a citizen of India to how the Constitution enforces the rights it gives. These rights are at work in ordinary life: when a person speaks his mind online, prays in his own way, or is stopped b…

130 min read 16 Oct 2026

Injuria Sine Damno

A Legal Principle Recognizing Violation of Rights Without Actual Harm

3 min read 9 Sep 2026

What is a Writ and How to File Writ Petitions

Understanding the importance of writs in enforcing Fundamental Rights in India.

20 min read 9 Sep 2026

In A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras (1950), the Supreme Court upheld the Preventive Detention Act, 1950, except Section 14, and held Gopalan's detention legal. The majority treated each fundamental right as a separate compartment and read 'procedure established by law' as any law made by the legislature, not 'due process'. Justice Fazl Ali's dissent was later adopted in R.C. Cooper (1970) and Maneka Gandhi (1978), so the case is the starting point for understanding how Article 21 developed.

During the 1975 Emergency, a five-judge bench held by a 4:1 majority that once the enforcement of Article 21 was suspended by a Presidential order under Article 359(1), no person had locus standi to file a habeas corpus petition under Article 226, even against an illegal detention. Justice H. R. Khanna's lone dissent, which said that the right to life and liberty does not come from the Constitution alone, is celebrated as the moral high point of the judiciary. The judgment was later answered by the Forty-fourth Amendment (1978) and expressly overruled in K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017).