Every Person (natural person) has certain rights guaranteed under Part III of Constitution of India as fundamental rights which are enforceable by law. Some rights are only guaranteed to citizens and not to non – citizens. For instance – Article 15 which states that no citizens will be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
Article 21 of Constitution of India
Article 21 of the constitution of India states that no person shall be deprived of right and personal liberty unless procedure established by law. The right guaranteed under Article 21 is for both citizens and non citizens.
There are various other rights available under article 21 such as right to clean environment, right to livelihood, right to noise free environment, right to water, right to privacy, etc.
What if I say the right to sleep is your Fundamental right? But does it mean you can sleep anywhere and anytime?
Right to sleep during lectures?
Does it mean that you can sleep during your class lectures and expect from your professor not to punish you or disturb you because you are sleeping?
No, Right to sleep doesn’t mean sleeping anywhere and anytime is your Fundamental right. But certain reasonable restrictions were given in the Ramlila Maidan case.
Ramlila Maidan v. Home Secretary & Ors (23rd Feb 2012)
The two judges bench of Supreme Court of India comprising Justice B. S Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar held that the right to sleep is a fundamental right, if any crowd is peacefully sleeping, they can’t be included with the bracket of unlawful assembly unless they do any such act. If someone is not getting normal sleep then it affects his health and amounts torture because a normal sleep is a basic thing which is need of every human body.
Hence, Right to sleep is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India but subject to reasonable restrictions.
