Smt.Sujatha And 9 Others vs The State Of Telangana And 5 Others on 5 June, 2023
21. As held by Apex Court in Olga Tellis Vs. Bombay
Municipal Corporation 2 and Yatam Bangaru Venkamma
and another v. State of Andhra Pradesh 3, Article 21 of the
Constitution of India guarantees right to life, which includes
right to livelihood. Time and again the Courts not only held
that Article 21 is one of the great silences of the Constitution.
The right to livelihood cannot be subjected to individual
fancies of the persons in authority. The sweep of the right to
life conferred by Article 21 is wide and far reaching. An
important facet of that right is the right to livelihood, because,
no person can live without the means of living, that is, the
means of livelihood. If the right to livelihood is not treated as
2 AIR 1986 SC 180
3 2020 (5) ALD 601 (AP)
16
a part of the constitutional right to life, the easiest way of
depriving a person of his right to life would be to deprive him
of his means of livelihood to the point of abrogation. The right
to live with human dignity, free from exploitation is enshrined
in Article 21 and derives its life breadth from the Directive
Principles of State Policy and particularly Clauses (e) and (f)
of Article 39 and Articles 41 and 42 and at least, therefore, it
must include the right to live with human dignity, the right to
take any action which will deprive a person of enjoyment of
basic right to live with dignity as an integral part of the
constitutional right guaranteed under Article 21 of the
Constitution of India.