‘The Food Must Reach the Hungry’: Lessons from Judicial Enforcement of Right to Food in India

Abstract

Food security and securing right to food for all is one of the essential mandate for a welfare State especially for achieving aspiring targets of Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Judicialisation of right to food is a substantial way through which right to food can be protected and implemented at domestic level. The Indian experience of right to food adjudication depicts that the Supreme Court has carved out an expansive role for itself through judicial activism to secure the fundamental rights of the citizens. The PUCL case, popularly called as right to food case has set off a cascade of judicial action and made India a model showing how courts can effectively implement socio-economic rights through judicial intervention. This model of adjudicatory leadership by the constitutional courts shows a remedy-oriented approach which have overcome the normative concerns of democratic legitimacy and polycentricity. Courts have strengthened the institutional legitimacy through participatory democracy with citizens and adjudicated multifaceted policy concerns. The author put forth the emergence of ‘triad model’ of adjudication where interaction of courts, local bodies and citizens makes enforcement of the right more practicable. The article concludes that Courts can be a catalyst for transforming public policy implementation by securing basic right to the citizens through innovative remedies.