Right to Safe Drinking Water: Indian Legal Perspective

Abstract

The right to water is highly debatable and secures itself top priority in the agenda of various the national and international organizations[1]. The situation in India is complicated as the right to water is not recognised as the right by the legislature in any statute or the constitution itself, but interpreted by the judiciary from the existing fundamental rights in different cases brought before it. Therefore, the status of the right, its legal standing and the means for its realisation could not be compartmented into the right and duties of the different departments or the institutions involved in governance of the resource. The importance of the right is undeniable and unanimously accepted at the global level but the manner and technique for securing the ‘human right to water for all’ is yet to be conquered.[2] Although, recognition of the right to water could be translated as the obligations of the states to fulfil their positive obligations for the realisation of right and such realisation raises many concerns, which is discussed in this paper.