Right to Sleep

Sleep is a biological imperative. It is not negotiable. Any degree of sleepiness will impair performance and mood. Sleep is when our bodies are at their busiest: While our waking minds go on autopilot, some of our bodies’ most sophisticated mechanisms rev up to do the hard work involved in repairing and maintaining nearly every aspect of our physiology and psychology.

Right to Sleep: A Constitutional Right
Under Article 19(1) (a), read with Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the citizens have a right of a decent environment and they have a right to live peacefully, right to sleep at night and to have a right to leisure which is all necessary ingredients of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. People of India have a right to sleep and leisure. Disruption or disturbance in sleeps creates mental stress, deficient in working efficiency and other things.

For an example, there was a case in 2012, Ramlila Maidan Incident vs Home Secretary, The Apex Court passed the verdict after taking ‘suo motu’ cognizance of media reports showing the brutality of police action against the followers of Ramdev who were sleeping. According to the Court, a person cannot be presumed to be engaged in a criminal activity or an activity to disturb peace of mind when asleep. Justice Chauhan opined, ‘To presume that a person was scheming to disrupt public peace while asleep would be unjust and would be entering into the dreams of that person. ‘I am bewildered to find out as to how such declaration of the intention to impose the prohibition was affected on a sleeping crowd.’

Conclusion
In the light of Judicial pronouncements and Judicial Precedents discussed above, I came to the conclusion that Right to Sleep though not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution of India, but is a part of Fundamental Right under Right to life under Article 21. Life is much more than combination of body and Soul. It implicates the physical and mental conditions necessary to keep body and Soul together. Right to life thus includes all the conditions which are minimally essential for Human existence.

Source: – Legal Service India
Written By: – Rajat Ranjan