The inviolable fundamental right to life and access to roads for residents of hilly areas, and the denial of compensation to landowners for road construction as a breach of constitutional rights.

JUDGMENT

Sureshwar Thakur, J. - The petitioners, seek a mandamus becoming pronounced, upon the respondents, qua, DharampurRajpura road, becoming declared fit, for, plying of vehicles thereon, hence, for enabling the residents, of, the area concerned, to ensure the plying thereon(s), of, HRTC buses, for, theirs thereafter, availing the facility, of, making road communication(s) therefrom. Furthermore, directions are also strived, to be made upon the respondents, for, declaring illegal, and, nonest Annexure P1, (i) wherethrough, the respondents became hence constrained, to, decline, the, making, of, a declaration, visa-vis, afore road being fit, for, plying vehicles, hence thereon, (ii) inasmuch as, completion of the afore road being made, subject to the land owners concerned, whose lands abut the afore link road, commencing from Dharampur-Rajpura, rather executing gift deeds, vis-a-vis, their apposite lands, and, qua the respondents.

2. The respondents, in the reply, meted by them, to the writ petition, also cast therein, the afore objections, for, theirs omitting, to, make, the declaration, as become(s) strived through the extant writ petition. The trite legal conundrum, hence besetting this Court, for, its becoming resolved, through, an adjudication being made thereon, (a) is the validity, of, afore projected resistance qua the rendition, of, the espoused direction, inasmuch as, its hence falling within the domain, and, ambit, of, expostulation(s), of, law, and, within the notion, of, a, beneficent welfare State, hence conceiving, through a special legislation, the peremptory requirement(s), of, acquisition of apposite lands, hence for ensuring qua therethrough, the constitutional mandate(s), enshrined in Article 300-A, and, in Article 31 becoming not breached, and, rather therethroughs becoming enlivened.

3. The Hon'ble Apex Court in a decision, pronounced in case titled, as, State of Himachal Pradesh vs. Umed Ram, (1986) AIR SC 847 , has made thereon, a, declaration, (a) vis-a-vis, the right to life created, through Article 31 of the Constitution of India, embracing not only mere human existence, but also quality of life, and, for residents of hilly areas, the access of road, is, the access to life. Furthermore, it also becomes expostulated therein, that, denial, of, access to road, to the residents of hilly areas, would tantamount to denial to them, of, the constitutionally guaranteed right to life. Consequently, access to roads, vis-a-vis, the residents, of, hilly areas, is, an inbuilt component, of, the constitutionally guaranteed right to life, and, any denial thereof, to the residents of hilly areas, would tantamount, to the, afore constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to life, hence becoming breached and infringed. In other words, the afore right, is, an inviolable fundamental right, and, does not brook, any, of the afore opposition(s) thereto, as, become projected by the State, nor does withstand any, hence free from compensation, rather, compulsive expropriation, of, land(s), and, properties, of, land owners.

4. Be that as it may, the respondents strived to deny the afore constitutionally guaranteed right to life, inasmuch as, the fundamental right to access to roads, visa-vis, the petitioners, (i) merely, upon a policy decision, becoming taken by them, inasmuch as, the construction of a public road, commencing from Dharampur-Rajpura, becoming unamenable, for completion, (ii) as the petitioners, and, other land owners rather declining to execute gift deeds qua therewith, vis-a-vis, the respondents. The insistences, of, compliance(s), by the apposite respondents, upon, the afore apposite policy decision, as, taken by the respondents, rather by the writ petitioners, does visibly tantamount, to the respondents therethrough, striving to ensure untenable expropriation, of, the private properties, of, those land owners, whose lands abut the afore road, (iii) and, the afore forcible expropriation, as hence strived,