Article 32- Right to Constitutional Remedies and Public Interest Litigation

A newspaper in Mumbai reports that dozens of undertrial prisoners have been in jail for longer than the maximum sentence for their offence. None of them can afford a lawyer, and none has filed anything. A lawyer who has never met them writes a letter to the Supreme Court. The Court acts on it. How can a stranger go to the highest court on behalf of someone else, and why does a right mean nothing without a court to enforce it? Article 32 and public interest litigation answer both questions.

In two minutes

Article 32 guarantees the right to move the Supreme Court for enforcement of fundamental rights and empowers it to issue directions, orders and writs; public interest litigation is the relaxation of standing that lets a person or body sue for those who cannot.

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