HUMAN RIGHTS: DOMESTIC STANDARDS || INDIAN CONSTITUTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Domestic standards encapsulate the local factors and the standards of Human Rights in India, their contents and enforcement mechanisms which is a complex interplay of constitutional obligations, legislative practices, executive acts and endeavours and judicial pronouncements together with some fourth-branch institutions like Election Commission, Minority Commission, Information Commission Human Rights Commission, etc. The foundational thread of human rights in India has to be started and studied from the Constitution with certitude, which is itself incomplete without reading judicial interpretations and pronouncements in it especially with respect to the Part III for any democratic nation cannot cherish the values of human rights unless and until they are deeply entrenched in the warp and woof of the constitutional fabric. The most poignant among all the aforesaid is the catena of judicial decisions which have embarked on their genesis based on the fundamental human rights as enunciated in Part III of the Constitution. Some landmark judgments have been noted below: Chameli v. State of UP 1995 Rudul Shah v State of Bihar 1983 Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar 1979 Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation 1986 D K Basu v. State of West Bengal 1997 Nilabati Behara v. State of Orissa 1993 Shreya singhal v. Union of India, 2015 NALSA v. Union of India, 2014 Naz foundation v. NCT, 2009 Vishaka State of Rajasthan, 1997 Miss Mohini Jain v State of Karnataka 1992 Unni Krishnan, J.P. . v. State of Andhra Pradesh 1993 Selvi v. State of Karnataka, 2010 Sarla Mudgal Union of India, 1995 MC Mehta v. Union of India, 1986 Devika Biswas v. Union of India (2016) 10 SCC 726 Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D. v. State of Orissa and Another (2016) 9 SCC 682 Ram Deo Chauhan V. Bani Kanta Das and others (2010) 14 SCC 209. Empire Industries Limited V. State of Maharashtra and others (2010) 4 SCC 272 Shabnam Hashmi V. Union of India and others (2014) 4 SCC 1 Shatrughan Chauhan and Another V. Union of India and others (2014) 3 SCC 1 The Human Rights Act, 1993 was brought into force after the World Conference on Human Rights 1993 held in Vienna. Its section 2 (d) defines human rights in a very restrictive sense, though it refers to the International Covenants (ICCPR and ICESCR). The Act provided for the establishment of Human Rights Courts at district level (under Sections 30 and 31), though this has not practically been accentuated till date.