Open Access Research Article

FROM DIRECTIVE ASPIRATION TO STATUTORY ENTITLEMENT: INTERROGATING THE ENFORCEABILITY OF THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN INDIA’S COMMERCIALISED MEDICAL MATRIX

Author(s):
ARPIT MEENA KAUSHAL KISHOR MEENA VINAY SACHDEV
Journal IJLRA
ISSN 2582-6433
Access Open Access
Volume 3
Issue 7
Download PDF Open PDF Citation Search Scholar

Abstract

Over four decades the Supreme Court of India has read a right to health into the guarantee of life in Article 21 of the Constitution, converting what the framers had placed among the non-justiciable Directive Principles of State Policy into an enforceable fundamental right. Yet the institutional reality against which this right operates is one of chronic public underinvestment: government health expenditure has hovered around one and a half per cent of gross domestic product, households still bear roughly two-fifths of health spending out of pocket, and the private sector delivers the bulk of hospital care. This article examines the friction that arises when the State seeks to discharge its constitutional obligation through statutes that compel private providers to deliver care, most visibly in mandates to provide emergency treatment without prepayment. Using doctrinal constitutional analysis of the leading precedents alongside the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act 2010, the Rajasthan Right to Health Care Act 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, it argues that a mandate to provide free emergency treatment which is not accompanied by an automatic and time-bound State reimbursement mechanism operates as an unfunded mandate that fails the proportionality analysis governing restrictions on the freedom of trade and profession under Article 19(1)(g). The article further contends that uniform executive rate-fixing risks arbitrariness under Article 14, and that the digitisation of health records has outpaced the development of sector-specific data protection. It concludes that judicial expansion of Article 21 has reached its structural limit and proposes a National Emergency Healthcare Reimbursement Fund and an independent Healthcare Tariff Regulatory Authority.  

Published Paper

PDF Preview
Download Open

Author Details

Authors: ARPIT MEENA, KAUSHAL KISHOR MEENA & VINAY SACHDEVRegistration ID: 1013340 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13340, IJLRA13341 & IJLRA13342Year: Oct-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 7Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, IndiaPage No.: 918- 940

Article Information

FROM DIRECTIVE ASPIRATION TO STATUTORY ENTITLEMENT: INTERROGATING THE ENFORCEABILITY OF THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN INDIA’S COMMERCIALISED MEDICAL MATRIX

Authors: ARPIT MEENA, KAUSHAL KISHOR MEENA, VINAY SACHDEV

  • Journal IJLRA
  • ISSN 2582-6433
  • Volume 3
  • Issue 7
Citation Download Paper Full Details Search on Google Search on Google Scholar

About Journal

International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis

  • AbbreviationIJLRA
  • ISSN2582-6433
  • AccessOpen Access
  • LicenseCC 4.0

All research articles published in International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis are open access and available to read, download and share, subject to proper citation of the original work.

Creative Commons

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis.

Current Issue

Ethics and Policy

For Authors