Chairman, Railway Board v. Chandrima Das

Facts

A Bangladeshi woman, Smt. Hanuffa Khatoon, was gang-raped by railway employees in a room at Yatri Niwas, a railway building at Howrah Railway Station. An advocate, Mrs. Chandrima Das, filed a public interest petition seeking compensation for the victim. The High Court awarded compensation, and the Railway Board appealed.

Issues

• Whether the Central Government / Railways was liable to pay compensation for the rape committed by its employees.
• Whether the right to life under Article 21 extends to a foreign national, and whether sovereign immunity could be pleaded.

Arguments

The Railways contended that running the railways and the act of the employees fell within sovereign functions and that a foreign national could not claim constitutional remedies. The respondent argued the right to life under Article 21 protects every person, citizen or not, and the State was liable for the violation by its employees.

Held

The Supreme Court held that the right to 'life' in Article 21 is available to every person, including a foreigner and a tourist, in consonance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Rape is a violation of the victim's fundamental right to life and dignity. The Central Government was held vicariously liable to pay compensation, sovereign immunity being no defence to a violation of fundamental rights.

Ratio decidendi

The State is liable to pay compensation for violation of the right to life under Article 21 by its employees, and this protection extends to non-citizens; the plea of sovereign immunity cannot defeat a fundamental-rights claim.

Significance

A leading modern authority confirming that constitutional tort liability for breach of Article 21 overrides sovereign immunity and that fundamental-rights protection extends to foreign nationals, continuing the line of compensation cases (Rudal Sah, Bhim Singh, Saheli) that bypassed Kasturi Lal.

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