Reasonableness And In Public Interest - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition reasonableness-and-in-public-interest

Definition :

Reasonableness and in public interest, the integra-tion of Articles 14, 19 and 21 analysed by this Court in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 2 SCR 621: (1978) 1 SCC 248, clearly demonstrates that the requirements of reasonableness runs like a golden thread through the entire fabric of fundamental rights and, as several decisions of this court show, this concept of reasonableness finds its positive manifestation and expression in the lofty ideal of social and economic justice which inspires and animates the directive principles. It has been laid down by this court in E. P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1974) 2 SCR 348: (1974) 4 SCC 3) and Maneka Gandhi case, (1978) 2 SCR 621: (1978) 1 SCC 248 that Article 14 strikes at arbitrariness in State action and since the principle of reasonableness and rationality, which is legally as well as philoso-phically an essential element of equality or non-arbitrariness, is projected by this Article, it must characterise every governmental action, whether it be under the authority of law or in exercise of executive power without making of law. So also the concept of reasonableness runs through the totality of Article 19 and requires that restrictions on the freedoms of the citizen, in order to be permissible, must at the best be reasonable. Similarly Article 21 in the full plenitude of its activist magnitude as discovered by Maneka Gandhi case, (1978) 2 SCR 621: (1978) 1 SCC 248, insists that no one shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except in accordance with procedure established by law and such procedure must be reasonable, fair and just. The directive principles concretise and give shape to the concept of reasonableness envisaged in Articles 14, 19 and 21 and other Articles enumerating the fundamental rights, Kasturi Lal Lakshmi Reddy v. State of Jammu and Kashmir, AIR 1980 SC 1992: (1980) 4 SCC 1: (1980) 3 SCR 1338.