DOES DIGNITY DIE? A CONSTITUTIONAL INQUIRY INTO POSTHUMOUS RIGHTS UNDER ARTICLE 21 OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION
AUTHOR – BISHAKHA BISWAS, STUDENT AT JIS UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – BISHAKHA BISWAS, DOES DIGNITY DIE? A CONSTITUTIONAL INQUIRY INTO POSTHUMOUS RIGHTS UNDER ARTICLE 21 OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (10) OF 2026, PG. 158-163, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344. DOI – https://doi.org/10.65393/IJLRV6I1018
Abstract:
The thinking that has dominated debates about human rights in the mind of the constitution has been the one that sees rights exercised by living individuals who can claim and defend their rights in court. But contemporary constitutional discourses are increasingly recognizing that there are interests or rights that remain in existence even after the physical death of its holders. These concepts, like dignity of the deceased, posthumous reputation, posthumous privacy, posthumous image, and digital legacy have forced courts the world over to reconsider the connection of death and constitutional rights. In India, in the past, the Constitution under Article 21 provided only a limited protection against deprivation of life and personal liberty but later it has come to be used as a broad concept of human dignity. In judicial interpretation, the meaning of dignity has evolved from simply surviving to involving privacy, autonomy, reputation, and respectful treatment. Consequently, courts have begun to recognize that the concepts of fundamental principles are not about “once a person is dead, it is dead. This paper discusses the possibility of dignity beyond death and the possibility of constitutional protection for the deceased. The paper suggests that the constitutional value of dignity remains to impose obligations on the state and society as there is an emerging challenge in the digital era and Indian constitutional jurisprudence, comparative legal developments, and the law of fundamental rights generally end at death. The paper ends by saying that posthumous rights are not ‘rights’ in the customary sense of the term but rather ‘rights’ that are ‘constitutional duties’ owed to the living by virtue of their responsibility to respect the dignity of the deceased.
Keywords: Article 21, Constitutional Law, Human Rights, Death Jurisprudence, Posthumous Rights, Human Dignity and Right to Reputation.