Pune: The Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra said that every individual has the right to life along with the right to live with dignity, but crucial cases which involves conflicting interest need to be dealt in balanced way.

The CJI was delivering the DR. Patangrao Kadam Memorial Public Lecture Series at Pune’s Bharti Vidyapeeth during which he said that the Aruna Shanbaug case, involved a conflict between two fundamental rights and said that such cases need a thorough study before giving any verdict along with the facts of the case and the fundamental structure of the Constitution.

There was change in euthanasia law of the country after the Aruna Shanbaug case. The bench who was handling this case in the year 2017, recognized a living will by a terminally ill patient for passive euthanasia and clarified the way to execute the will and the role of the medical board in giving assent to the will by drafting new guidelines.

“Everyone has a right to life but at the same time, he or she has a right to life with dignity. If he/she is unable to live with dignity because of prolonged illness, from which he/she will not overcome then in such cases he/she has the right to die with dignity. This is what balancing of rights mean. Adjustment, acceptance, compromise, and settlement comes in the balancing of rights and for the coexistence of rights. We have to balance them for the well-being of mankind,” Mr Misra added.

The Chief Justice cited the Mazdur Krishna Shakti Sangathan case, in which he said that in such situations where conflict arises between two fundamental rights or intra-fundamental rights with respect to some person, the verdict in such cases becomes slightly difficult. “No particular parameter can be fixed but yet the courts try and endeavor to fix certain parameters, it has to be judged on facts of each case, taking care of certain constitutional concepts,” he noted.

Dipak Misra also noted that it is very important for any individual to exercise rights granted by the constitution to be able to develop the society and strengthen the democracy.

“We have a constitutional democracy and it is conceded with a singular and a sole mission and purpose of securing its citizen’s rights and liberties which foster and strengthen the spirit and growth of development in a society. Rights protected and guaranteed under a constitution are the fulcrum of any free society. We ought to live in a democratic and free society. As far as that concept is concerned there is no compromise. We have the rights and must exercise them within the constitutional parameters. These rights are interest recognized and protected by a rule of justice. If the rule of justice collapses, rule of law will automatically collapse. I must respect your freedom, you must respect mine and this is how we can build up a societal fraternity in a true sense,” the Chief Justice said.

Getting into the more details more about the topic of the importance of individual’s right in a democratic country, CJI Misra said, “In a democratic setup, every right matter and no right is absolute. There is no hierarchical order in rights. A particular fundamental right cannot exist in isolation.”

During the speech, the CJI also cited an example of the 1975 Narendra Prasad case and said that in such a case, the judicature observed that “A particular fundamental right cannot exist in isolation in a watertight compartment and one fundamental right of a person may have to coexist in harmony with the exercise of another fundamental right by others. “So, we have to co-exist, therefore the rights have to balanced.”

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