{"id":109250,"date":"2026-06-22T11:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=109250"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:48:10","slug":"supreme-court-declares-right-to-walk-on-footpaths-a-fundamental-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/supreme-court-declares-right-to-walk-on-footpaths-a-fundamental-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to Walk on Footpaths: Supreme Court Declares Right to Walk on Footpaths a Fundamental Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Right to Walk on Footpaths Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court of India, in its judgment in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maniyar Iliyaz @ Shaik Riyaz vs. P. Ayyappan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, declared the right to walk on safe, demarcated footpaths as a <\/span><b>fundamental right<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 one that takes priority over the movement of motor vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The immediate trigger was the death of a 5-year-old boy, struck by a tanker while walking to school with his father. But the court used the occasion to address a much larger civilisational failure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Crisis on the Ground: Data That Demands Attention<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India&#8217;s pedestrian death figures are alarming.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between 2015 and 2024, while total road fatalities rose by 21.24%, <\/span><b>pedestrian deaths surged by nearly 163%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 from 13,894 in 2015 to <\/span><b>36,526 in 2024<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their share in total road deaths more than doubled, from 9.5% to 20.61%.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pedestrians now account for the second-highest share of road fatalities, after two-wheeler users.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deaths rose even during the Covid-19 pandemic years \u2014 a telling sign of structural failure.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cause is not just speed or recklessness. It is the <\/span><b>systematic denial of pedestrian space<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Footpaths across Indian cities are routinely encroached by two-wheelers, vendors, parked vehicles, and garbage. In many places, they simply do not exist.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Court Said: Beyond Accident Law<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The judgment makes a sharp conceptual break. It <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">divorces the footpath from the narrow lens of motor accident law<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A footpath is not merely a safety buffer to prevent accidents. It has an identity and purpose of its own.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court held that the <\/span><b>right to walk is the most fundamental of human activities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 predating motorised transport by millennia.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Road infrastructure built overwhelmingly for vehicles has effectively pushed walkers to the margins, treating them, in the court&#8217;s words, as a &#8220;nuisance for drivers.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This, the court said, was elitism encoded in infrastructure. Motorised vehicles were once the preserve of the rich.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As they became cheaper and widespread, the entire road design paradigm shifted to serve them \u2014 at the cost of the walker.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Constitutional and Legal Foundations<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 21 \u2014 Right to Life:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The court grounded the right to walk in Article 21. A safe, unobstructed footpath is essential to the dignified exercise of the right to life and personal liberty.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Article 39(b) \u2014 Directive Principle<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Footpaths are material resources of the community. Article 39(b) mandates that such resources must be distributed to serve the common good \u2014 not monopolised by the motorised class. Urban land allocated for roads must balance the needs of both pedestrians and vehicle users.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Tragedy of the Commons<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The court invoked this concept from environmental law. Footpaths \u2014 like other shared public resources \u2014 degrade when they are encroached upon by many without accountability. Safe footpaths have become a scarce resource in Indian cities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Walking and Constitutional Freedoms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The court went further, linking walking to freedom of speech, peaceful protest, and the right to form associations. From Gandhi&#8217;s Dandi March to modern political rallies, walking has been a form of democratic expression in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Problem with the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is the primary legislation governing roads in India. The court was scathing in its assessment: the Act treats &#8220;vehicle&#8221; as its subject and human interests as incidental.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pedestrians appear in the law only as entities that drivers must avoid hitting \u2014 nothing more.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2017 MoRTH regulations on driving do ask drivers to take precautions around vulnerable road users.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the court held that these are merely guiding principles \u2014 they do not recognise any fundamental right to walk, nor do they give pedestrians priority over vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court noted that since 2012, it has been trying to squeeze pedestrian rights into the Motor Vehicles Act \u2014 with limited success.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Who Are the Duty-Bearers<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court identified the primary duty-bearers for footpath protection as <\/span><b>urban local bodies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 urban development authorities, municipal corporations, municipalities, and panchayats.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Footpaths are held in trust by these bodies for public benefit. Their failure to maintain, protect, and enforce footpath space is a constitutional failure, not merely an administrative lapse.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Court&#8217;s Key Directions and Recommendations<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Statutory Law<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The court was not satisfied with just declaring a right. It recommended that Parliament and State legislatures enact a dedicated statutory law \u2014 similar to the Right to Education Act \u2014 to give this fundamental right legal teeth on the ground.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>A Dedicated Regulator<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The court called for establishing a full-time regulatory body to plan, enforce, and implement pedestrian rights. Such a body would embed expertise, ensure accountability, and provide a forum for aggrieved pedestrians \u2014 much like the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights does for children&#8217;s rights.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>On Compensation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: In the original case, the Supreme Court reversed the High Court&#8217;s reduction of compensation and recalculated it upward to Rs. 11.44 lakh, to be paid within two months. It held that violation of the right to walk on demarcated footpaths entitles citizens to invoke constitutional and legal remedies beyond what the Motor Vehicles Act provides.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This judgment marks a <\/span><b>decisive reversal of the hierarchy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on Indian roads. For decades, road design, urban planning, and legislation privileged the motorised user.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court has now established that the pedestrian&#8217;s right is not subordinate \u2014 it takes <\/span><b>priority<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For municipal bodies and road agencies, maintaining safe, unobstructed footpaths is no longer a discretionary good practice. It is now a <\/span><b>constitutional duty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wherever a motorised road exists.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/right-of-way-on-the-right-to-walk-on-demarcated-footpaths\/article71122384.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/supreme-court-pedestrian-rights-footpath-judgment-explained-10749259\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Right to Walk on Footpaths has been recognised as a fundamental right by the Supreme Court, prioritising pedestrian safety and constitutional dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":109289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,8255,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-109250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-right-to-walk-on-footpaths","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109250"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109273,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109250\/revisions\/109273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}