INTERPRETATION OF ‘PROCEDURE ESTABLISHED BY LAW’

A Rough Draft submitted in partial fulfilment of the course

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW- I, 5th SEMESTER during the Academic Year
2018-2019

SUBMITTED BY:
Saad Ahmad
Roll No. - 1641
B.B.A LL.B

SUBMITTED TO:
Prof. (Dr.) Anirudh Prasad
FACULTY OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

AUGUST, 2018
CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,
NAYAYA NAGAR, MITHAPUR,
PATNA-800001
 INTRODUCTION

The expression “procedure established by law” has been subject matter of

interpretation in a catena of cases. A survey of these cases reveals that courts in the
process of judicial interpretation have enlarged the scope of the expression. The
Supreme Court took the view that “procedure established by law” in Article 21
means procedure prescribed by law as enacted by the state and rejected to equate it
with the American “due process of law.” But, in Maneka Gandhi v Union of India
the Supreme Court observed that the procedure prescribed by law for depriving a
person of his life and personal liberty must be “right, just and fair” and not
“arbitrary, fanciful and oppressive,” otherwise it would be no procedure at all and
the requirement of Article 21 would not be satisfied. Thus, the “procedure
established by law” has acquired the same significance in India as the “due process
of law” clause in America. Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, speaking in Sunil Batra v
Delhi Administration has said that though “our Constitution has no due process
clause” but after Maneka Gandhi’s case “the consequence is the same, and as much
as such Article 21 may be treated as counterpart of the due process clause in
American Constitution.”
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The Aims and Objectives of this project is to have a clear concept of article 21 and its
interpretation in various cases specially in case of A.K. Gopalan v State of madras and
Maneka Gandhi v Union of India.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this study, primary research method was utilised. Various articles, e-articles, reports and
books from library were used extensively in framing all the data and figures in appropriate
form, essential for this study.
The method used in writing this research is primarily analytical.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERIZATION

1. Introduction to article 21.

2. Analysis of article 21 in context of life, personal liberty and procedure

established by law.
3. Views of Supreme court in A.K. Gopalan’s case

4. Views of Supreme court in Maneka Gandhi’s case

5. Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 13TH Edition 2015 , Constititution of India, V.N. Shukla

 22nd Edition 2015, Introduction to Constititution of India, D.D. Basu
 52nd Edition 2015, Constititutional Law of India, J.N. Pandey