P RAJENDRA KUMAR PATRO Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the above cases the petitioners move for bail for alleged offences under the Narcotic Drugs an Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (in short, the Act).

(2.) The collective voice of the petitioners counsel in all these cases and other cases of similar nature manifests in their devoutness in human dignity and liberty, when Mr. Deepak Mishra learned counsel for one of the petitioners as a prelude to his argument referred to the saying of Patrick Henry give me liberty or give me death, quoted by one of the learned Judges of this Court in the case of Mangal Hembram v. State of Orissa

(3.) Liberty is fundamental and precious to everybody. Man is a divine being. He lives in the society and therefore, claims right, liberty and equality. Humap rights cannot be evaluated in isolation. They have to be read in the social context. Liberty of an individual can be curtailed in a given situation when exercise of that right of the Individual works out to the detriment of another individual and the society at large. As Justice Krishna Iyer observed in the case of Bahu Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, after all personal liberty of an accused or a convict is fundamental, suffering lawful eclipse only in terms of procedure established in law. The last four words of the Article 21 are the life of that human right.