In what ways do civil liberties and human rights movements influence the working of Indian democracy? Give your answer with suitable examples. (2010)
Civil liberties movements ask the state to stop doing something: to stop detaining, torturing and censoring. Human rights movements, dominant from the 1980s, add claims to food, work and information. Rajni Kothari placed both in the non-party political process, groups taking up what parties will not touch; no party gains votes by defending the accused. Their influence on Indian democracy runs through five channels.
1. Checking Authoritarian Lapse
- The movement was born of the Emergency (1975–77). In ADM Jabalpur (1976) the Supreme Court held, 4:1, that detainees could not seek habeas corpus; only H. R. Khanna dissented. The PUCLDR, launched on 17 October 1976 around Jayaprakash Narayan with V. M. Tarkunde as president, drew the lesson that paper guarantees fail when needed most.
- The 44th Amendment (1978) answered it: Articles 20 and 21 can no longer be suspended, and “armed rebellion” replaced “internal disturbance” in Article 352. Puttaswamy (2017) finally overruled ADM Jabalpur.
2. Converting Grievance into Justiciable Right
Public Interest Litigation made the fact-finding report a petition.
| Case | Movement input | Democratic effect |
|---|---|---|
| Hussainara Khatoon (1979) | Report on Bihar undertrials | Speedy trial read into Article 21 |
| PUDR v. Union of India (1982) | Asiad workers | Sub-minimum wage held forced labour (Art. 23) |
| D. K. Basu (1997) | Custodial deaths | Mandatory arrest safeguards |
| PUCL (1997) | Telephone tapping | Privacy safeguards, ancestor of Puttaswamy |
3. Making Power Transparent and Elections Cleaner
- The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (1990), founded by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, read muster rolls aloud at village jan sunwais; the campaign produced the RTI Act 2005, a movement writing a statute.
- The Association for Democratic Reforms won candidate disclosure of criminal and financial records (2002) and the end of electoral bonds (February 2024); a PUCL petition produced NOTA (2013).
- The PUCL right-to-food petition (2001) became mid-day meals by court order and then the National Food Security Act 2013.
4. Building and Auditing Institutions
The Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 created the NHRC. The movement keeps it under scrutiny: Section 19 lets it only seek a report on the armed forces, and its powers are recommendatory, hence the charge of a toothless tiger.
5. Contesting Security Laws
- TADA lapsed in 1995 and POTA was repealed in 2004 after sustained campaigning.
- Sedition was held in abeyance in S. G. Vombatkere (11 May 2022), yet Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, in force from 1 July 2024, renamed and widened it. The UAPA 2019 amendment allows individuals to be designated terrorists.
- On AFSPA, the Jeevan Reddy Committee (2005) urged repeal and EEVFAM (2016) denied blanket immunity; the Act has shrunk in area, not been repealed.
Limits
- Enforcement. D. K. Basu is routinely ignored, the Prakash Singh (2006) police reforms remain largely unimplemented, and India has signed but never ratified the Convention against Torture.
- Legitimacy. Upendra Baxi warns of a human rights industry: professionalised, donor-driven NGOs cut off from those who suffer. Nandita Haksar notes the movement works within limits the state sets.
- Contraction. The FCRA amendment of 2020, the RTI (Amendment) Act 2019 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, which removed the public-interest override for personal information, show the space shrinking. The “urban Naxal” label moves argument off the merits.
Conclusion
These movements have deepened Indian democracy from procedure towards substance, keeping the state answerable between elections. They have made the state’s violations illegal without making them costly: decisive over what the law says, weak over what police stations and prisons do. Their vitality remains the surest measure of Indian democracy’s health.