1st Internal Assessment

Law of Infrastructural Development

Research Outline

Infrastructural Development and Fundamental Rights

Submitted by:

Arindam Arav Prakash

18010126013

8th Semester , Division : A

2018-23
 Introduction

Infrastructure is the fundamental facilities and system serving a country, city, or other
area including the services and facilities necessary for its economy to function.
Infrastructure literally means public and physical improvements such as roads, bridge,
tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunication. For any state,
Infrastructure is very important aspect in regard to calculating its development
standard. For any government, it is also their prime concern, when any government is
competent to develop infrastructure, it is supposed that government is functional. The
word infrastructure has been used in English since 1887 and in French since 1875,
originally meaning "The installations that form the basis for any operation or
system".. There is various infrastructure development plans are introduced or
implemented every year. It is well established fact that, infrastructure is one of the
important component which can give a state as status of developed state. In lieu of the
revenue which is generated by the general taxpayer of the country, the government is
responsible, to develop infrastructure in the country, and on the other hand public or
citizens are also under the obligation to maintain or preserve the well-developed
infrastructure of the country.

As we know the every citizen have fundamental right to life and personal liberty1, and
it is also well established that the life doesn’t means a mere animal existence its
include the life with human dignity2, and it is only possible when there is minimum or
basic infrastructural development with bare necessities of life such as adequate
nutrition, Clothing, and Shelter over the head and facilities for Reading etc.3

Infrastructural Development and Fundamental Rights

If we try to relate the infrastructural development with fundamental right, first article
which come in light is article 21 of the constitution of India which reads as, No person
shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except procedure established by law.
If we refer to the Meneka Gandhi and Fransic Coralie case, Supreme Court well
observed that the word life does not means the mere animal existence of human being

1
Constitution of India, art. 21
2
Maneka Gandhi vs. Union of India;1978 AIR 597; 1978 SCR (2) 621.
3
Francis Coralie vs. Union Territory of Delhi; 1981 AIR 746; 1981 SCR (2) 516.
is not the meaning of the word ‘life’. The word life includes the life with human
dignity.

Human dignity is the recognition that human beings possess a special value intrinsic
to their humanity and as such are worthy of respect simply because they are human
beings.4 We can say that life in a dignified way is only possible when there is well
developed and maintained infrastructure in the country. If there is no means state
have, then it not possible to imagine the development. Article 21 have wider ambit to
cover various aspects of infrastructural development. Apart from article 21, Article
21- A which guarantees the rights of education.

In the case of Mohini Jain v. Union of India5, In this case, a resident of Uttar Pradesh
state challenged a notification issued by the Karnataka government that permitted
private medical colleges to charge higher fees to students who were not allocated
'government seats'. The Supreme Court of India held that the charging of a ‘capitation
fee’ by the private educational institutions violated the right to education, as implied
from the right to life and human dignity, and the right to equal protection of the law.
In the absence of an express constitutional right, the Court interpreted a right to
education as a necessary condition for fulfillment of the right to life under Article 21
of the Indian Constitution. In addition, the Court held that private institutions, acting
as agents of the State, have a duty to ensure equal access to, and non-discrimination
the delivery of, higher education. Further in the case of in the case of Unni Krishnan.
J.P and Others. v. State of Andhra Pradesh and others.6 The Supreme Court held that
the right to basic education is implied by the fundamental right to life7 when read in
conjunction with the directive principle on education8. The Court held that the
parameters of the right must be understood in the context of the Directive Principles
of State Policy, including Article 45 which provides that the state is to endeavour to
provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, for
free and compulsory education for all children under the age of 14. The Court ruled
that there is no fundamental right to education for a professional degree that flows
from Article 21.  It held, however, that the passage of 44 years since the enactment of
4
https://cbhd.org/category/issues/human-dignity (last accessed on 12/04/2019)
5
1992 AIR 1858, 1992 SCR (3) 658.
6
1993 SCR (1) 594; 1993 SCC (1) 645
7
Constitution of India; art.21
8
Constitution of India; art.41
the Constitution had effectively converted the non-justifiable right to education of
children under 14 into one enforceable under the law.  After reaching the age of
fourteen, their right to education is subject to the limits of economic capacity and
development of the state.9Quoting Article 13 of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Court stated that the state's obligation to
provide higher education requires it to take steps to the maximum of its available
resources with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right of
education by all appropriate means.

After going through these articles of the constitution, it is clear that state is under
obligation to provide some basic requirements of the life like food, shelter etc. If we
again examine the aspect of article 21-A then it is clear that, again state is under
obligation to provide elementary education, basic education to the children of aged 14
years.

Conclusion and Suggestions

After going through the above discussion, it is clear that; infrastructure is one of the
important key elements for the developed country. In other words, it can be said, that
infrastructure is basic criteria to discuss about the development. Under constitution of
India there is distribution of legislative power by which various level of government
is responsible for the development of infrastructure. Under seventh schedule of
constitution it is well settled that, there is total three lists, namely Union list, state list
and concurrent list, under union list central government is under obligation to develop
the infrastructure, under state list there are several subject matters is discussed for
which state government is under obligation to maintain and develop the infrastructure.
Third and last list of the schedule provides for concurrent list, where both the
government, central as well as state are under obligation and responsible for the
development.

Supreme Court of India also by interpretation of some of the article under part III of
the constitution makes the government responsible to provide and develop the
infrastructure.

9
Ibid
For example under article 21 and 21- A which talks about the life and personal liberty
and right to education respectively. Under these circumstances, government is
responsible for providing basic standards to the citizen and people.

There are various professionals who plays important role in the development of the
infrastructure, like engineers, social planner etc. they made various efforts for the
development, they use their intellect for the development.

My suggestion in this regard is that people of India or any county should also
participate in the development and it should not be understood by them that, duty of
development is only made on the part of government. The infrastructure which is
already developed by the government it should be protected by the people.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Statutes Referred

 Constitution of India.
 Government of India Act, 1935.
 The Gazette of India: Extraordinary, 1984.
 The Gazette of India: Extraordinary, 1986.
 The Gazette of India: Extraordinary, 1994.

Articles referred from Internet Sources

 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/infrastructure.asp
 Brancalente, Di Palma et al Gianpiero Torrisi, public infrastructure: definition,
classification and measurement issues, Munich personal RePEc Archive. 2006
  Easterly and Rebelo, 1993.https://untappd.com/b/galway-brothers-brewing-
balthazar-2016/2714386

Secondary Sources

Books Referred

The following textbooks have been referred to:

 Chatterji Souvik, Laws of Infrastructure Development in India, Deep and

Deep publications, ed. 1, 2015.

Reports referred:

 Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, 2016.

 Indian Roads Congress, 2018
 Central Public Works Department, Ministry of Urban Development, 2013
 Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), 2016