Maneka Gandhi v Union of India

Maneka Gandhi v Union of India was a 1978 decision of the Supreme Court of India arising after the government impounded journalist Maneka Gandhi's passport without giving reasons. The Court held that any law depriving a person of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution must be just, fair and reasonable, not merely enacted through some procedure established by law, effectively reading a due process requirement into a constitutional text that, unlike the American due process clause, had deliberately omitted the phrase. The decision is regarded as the beginning of the Indian judiciary's expansive, rights protective reading of the right to life and personal liberty, and it underlies later rulings on dignity and privacy including Justice K S Puttaswamy v Union of India.