Lawyer Rohan J. Alva explores the backstory of Article 21 in his book

It attempts to answer the question that has puzzled legal experts

One of the shortest articles in the Constitution has had the maximum juridical impact—Article 21. It captured popular imagination after the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy is intrinsic to the right to life and liberty.

As lawyer Rohan J. Alva explores in his book—Liberty After Freedom: A History of Article 21, Due Process and the Constitution of India—the backstory of the article is marked by several twists and turns, shrouded in mystery and marred by the intriguing disavowal of the ‘due process’ guarantee. What makes Alva’s book special is its attempt to answer the question that has puzzled both legal experts and students of law, as to why the drafters of the Constitution gave up the ‘due process’ guarantee in the context of exceptions to be made to the right to personal liberty, and their decision to opt for the much more supine phrase, ‘except according to procedure established by law’.

The book delves into the sequence of events starting from the initial discussions of the constituent assembly in December 1947 when the ‘due process’ guarantee was given utmost importance.

According to Alva, it appears that the drastic change in the formulation of the right was an act of impulsive spontaneity unsupported by strong reasons. On the basis of the debates that followed as the constituent assembly took up the draft Constitution, Alva writes there was an odd change in B.R. Ambedkar’s stance on the ‘due process’ guarantee, from being the person who first introduced the concept to the assembly to moving to a position where he would not weigh in on the debates on it in any substantial measure.

The book tries to answer this and other unanswered questions.

Liberty After Freedom: A History of Article 21, Due Process and the Constitution of India

By Rohan J. Alva

Published by HarperCollins

Price Rs599; Pages 289

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