BUDHADEV KARMASKAR Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Human rights jurisprudence in India has acquired a constitutional status and sweep, owing to the full potential breathed by this Court into Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India since Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248. The constitutional regard for human decency and dignity has been explicitly incorporated into Article 21 by this Court. While expounding on the scope of the right to life under Article 21, this Court in Francis Coralie Mullin v. Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi, (1981) 1 SCC 608 extended the meaning of the right to life beyond the protection of limb or faculty to include the right to live with human dignity and all that goes along with it, namely, the bare necessities of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter and also the right to carry on such functions and activities as constitute the bare minimum expression of the human-self. Needless to say, this basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children, who, bearing the brunt of social stigma attached to their work, are removed to the fringes of the society, deprived of their right to live with dignity and opportunities to provide the same to their children.

(2.) Pursuant to an order passed by this Court on 19/7/2011, a Panel was constituted with Mr. Pradip Ghosh as the Chairman of the Panel, Mr. Jayant Bhushan, Senior counsel, Usha Multipurpose Co-operative Society through its President/Secretary, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee through its President/Secretary, and Roshni through Ms. Saima Hasan.

(3.) By an order dt. 26/7/2012, this Court modified the third term of reference to conditions conducive to sex workers to live with dignity in accordance with the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.