L K KOOLWAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Right and duty co-exists. There cannot be any right without any duty and there cannot be any duty without any right. It is a happy sign that the citizens of Jaipur, through the present petitioner Mr. L.K. Koolwal has moved to this Court in the matter of sanitation of Jaipur City. Good number of affidavits have been filed by the citizens of Jaipur relating to each of the locality referred to in the writ petition to show that the sanitation problem is acute in Jaipur which is hazardous to the life of the citizens of Jaipur. Insanitation leads to a slow poisoning and adversely affects the life of the citizen and invites the death at an earlier date than the natural death.

(2.) Article 51-A of the Constitution has been inserted in the Constitution of India vide 42nd Amendment in 1976. We can call Art.51-A ordinarily as the duty of the citizens, but in fact it is the right of the citizens as it creates the right in favour of the citizen to move to the Court to see that the State performs its duties faithfully and the obligatory and primary duties are performed in accordance with the law of land. Omissions or commissions are brought to the notice of the Court by the citizen and thus, Art.51-A gives a right to the citizen to move the Court for the enforcement of the duty cast on State, instrumentalities, agencies, departments, local bodies and statutory authorities created under the particular law of the State. It provides particularly under clause (g) that the State and its instrumentalities and agencies should strive to protect and prove the natural environment. Under clause (j) it has been further provided that the State should (strive towards) collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to the higher levels of endeavour and achievement. Parliament in its wisdom has correctly used the word citizen instead of the word subject to create a feeling of citizenship amongst the masses and also to see that the persons living in the country do not feel that they are subjects. We were used to be the subjects prior to independence, but now we have ceased to be the subject and now we are the citizens of the Country. The requirement of the time is that we should be real citizens of the Country. That can only be achieved if we strive towards the achievement of the goal laid down in the Preamble of the Constitution. Chapter IV directs the principles of the Constitution and Art.51-A of Chapter IVA. Prior to 1976 everyone used to talk of the rights but none cared to think that there is a duty also. The right cannot exist without a duty and it is the duty of the citizen to see that the rights which he has acquired under the Constitution as a citizen are fulfilled.

(3.) Citizen has a right to know about the activities of the State, the instrumentalities, the departments and the agencies of the State. The privilege of secrecy which existed in the old times that the State is not bound to disclose the facts to the citizens or the State cannot be compelled by the citizens to disclose the facts, does not survive now to a great extent. Under Art.19(a) of the Constitution there exists the right of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is based on the foundation of the freedom of right to know. The State can impose and should impose the reasonable restrictions in the matter like other fundamental rights where it affects the national security and any other allied matter affecting the nation's integrity. But this right is limited and particularly in the matter of sanitation and other allied matter every citizen has a right to know how the State is functioning and why the State is withholding such information in such matters. Mr. Koolwal has approached this Court in exercise of rights vested in him under Art.51A, though it is said to be a duty, that the Court should issue directions against the respondents to implement the law, the Municipal Law and to perform the obligatory duties cast on the State. Maintenance of health, preservation of the sanitation and environment falls within the purview of Art.21 of the Constitution as it adversely affects the life of the citizen and it amounts to slow poisoning and reducing the life of the citizen because of the hazards created, if not checked.