Low Visibility Rules

Low visibility rules, these are rules of law which are made inaccessible to the public. Generally these are obscure laws, with far reaching powers and which infringe fundamental rights and those which the state does not wish to publicize. 'Fundamental rights cease to be viable if laws calculated to constrict their sweep are withheld from public access; and the freedoms under Art. 19(1) cannot be restricted by hidden or 'low visibility rules' beyond discovery by fair search. ' [Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, AIR 1978 SC 1675 (1721), para 93] - here reference is made to the Punjab Jail Manual which was not made available to prisoners and was priced so high that few could buy. (Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer)