Constitutional Values and Moral Crisis
The 75th anniversary of the Constitution prompts reflection on how personal liberty and human dignity are often reduced to mechanical legal interpretations, ignoring their deeper ethical significance.
There’s an ongoing moral crisis, with the right to personal liberty, central to justice, being overlooked in practice.
A sober re-evaluation is needed of how these constitutional values are being undermined.
Reinstating Dissent as Constitutional Ethic
The 2017 Puttaswamy case revived Justice S. Fazl Ali’s dissent from the 1950 Gopalan case, emphasizing political dissent as a fundamental right.
The original Gopalan judgment, which upheld preventive detention, is now seen as flawed in terms of constitutional ethics.
Personal liberty is now recognized as inseparable from justice, and dissent is central to maintaining this principle.
Historical Parallels with Modern Dissent
A.K. Gopalan’s struggle in the 1950s mirrors the experiences of today’s anti-CAA resisters, like Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who face prolonged detention under anti-terror laws.
Both then and now, the courts have failed to protect personal liberty, and dissenters continue to be oppressed despite constitutional protections.
Need for Judicial Intervention
The paradox of criminalizing dissent while protecting it constitutionally calls for judicial action to uphold personal liberty.
Cases like Bhima Koregaon and the Delhi riots require urgent intervention to protect the rights of dissenters detained under harsh laws.
The judiciary must adopt "creative constitutionalism" to safeguard individual freedoms and prevent the Constitution from being misused for political gain.
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