Article 21: A journey from “Procedure established by law” to “Due process of law”.

Article 21: Protection of life and personal liberty :  No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

Procedure Established by Law

It means that a law that is duly enacted by legislature or the concerned body is valid if it has followed the correct procedure.In this the court would assess that whether there is law or not, whether the Legislature is competent to frame the law and whether it had followed the procedure laid down to legislate and would not assess the intent of the said law.

Following this doctrine means that, a person can be deprived of his life or personal liberty according to the procedure established by law. So, if Parliament pass a law, then the life or personal liberty of a person can be taken off according to the provisions and procedures of the that law.

Important cases

Important Cases

1: Minerva mill Vs union of India 1980.

S.C declared 368(4) and (5) unconstitutional

368(4) – no amendment of this constitution shall be called in question or challenged in court.

368(5) – there shall be no limitation on constituent power of parliament to amend any provision of constitution.

 

2: Indira Sahani Vs Union of India 1992

reservation of 27% of seats in favour of OBC is constitutionally valid.

 

3: Nagraj Vs union of India

reservation policy shall satisfy the constitutional requirement

 

4: Balaji Raghawan Vs union of India 1996