Rudul Sah’s case was a public interest litigation (PIL) case filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution (whereby one can directly approach the Supreme Court when fundamental rights have been infringed upon). The petition sought the release of Rudul Sah from illegal detention, and also ancillary relief such as rehabilitation and compensation.
As regards enforcement of the decision, the judgment specified that the amount must be paid within two weeks from the date of the decision. The Government of Bihar agreed to make the payment.
Rudul Sah’s case is a landmark judgment in the jurisprudence of state liability. It is considered particularly important as it led to the emergence of compensatory jurisprudence for the violation of fundamental rights under the Constitution. It is noteworthy in this context that there is no express provision for awarding compensation in the text of the Indian Constitution, and that this judgment was on the basis of the Court’s interpretation of the extent of its remedial powers. This was the first case since the inception of the Supreme Court that awarded monetary compensation to a person for the violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The grant of such monetary compensation was in addition, and not to the exclusion, to the right of the aggrieved person to bring an action for damages in civil law or in tort. Following this case, the Supreme Court awarded compensation in several cases. In the subsequent early cases in which this remedy was considered, the Court held that compensation would be awarded only in ‘appropriate cases’ which seemed to primarily involve life and liberty rights and were mostly cases relating to illegal detention and unlawful deaths. Nonetheless, in later cases, it became clear that the scope had become significantly wider. Since economic and social rights are often considered by the Supreme Court under the ambit of Article 21 of the Constitution (the right to life which is a fundamental right), compensation as a constitutional remedy may be available for violations of these rights. For example, in the case Paschim Banga Khet Samity v State of West Bengal (1996 SCC(4)37), where the Supreme Court uheld that the right to life included the right to health, compensation was granted by way of redress with explicit reference to the Rudul Sah case.
(Updated May 2015)