Status of Individual Rights under Indian Constitution: A Critical Analysis of the Theory of Harmonious Construction between Individual and Group Rights in India

Since its inception, the Indian Republic has adopted a constitution with an extensive vision of envisaging a constitutional biosphere that would encompass individuals and the community as a whole and be woven into a single fabric of the state system. The Apex Court, in a plethora of judgments, reiterated the constitutional objective of harmonious construction between individual and group rights. The status and role of an individual in a modern state system is a constant transformation but, at the same time, a constitutional question that hasn’t changed much in its fundamental sense. The changes that had undergone in the structure of a state, as well as the newly gained characteristics of a welfare state, have indeed made changes to the administration of a state. On the other hand, the rights guaranteed to the citizens have remained the same in their original self, though the mode of executing such rights has transformed. Because of its inherent self, the welfare state system has resulted in the origin of many new rights, which has naturally brought about changes in the status and role of an individual in society. This research intends to illuminate the constitutional dynamics between the status of rights guaranteed to an individual inside a democratic society and the changing characteristics of a state system. The author attempts to delve into the unfolding development of human rights and the acceptance of the need for inculcating such renewed facets of human rights into the national system, including recognition of novel facets of individual rights, including the emerging jurisprudence of privacy and bodily integrity.