Human dignity is the soul of the Constitution, says CJI BR Gavai

At the 11th Dr L M Singhvi Memorial Lecture, CJI BR Gavai called human dignity the principle uniting all fundamental rights and guiding judicial interpretation in India

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai on Wednesday described human dignity as the “soul of the Constitution”, calling it the principle that unites all fundamental rights and guides constitutional interpretation.

 

Delivering the 11th Dr L M Singhvi Memorial Lecture on Human Dignity as the Soul of the Constitution: Judicial Reflections in the 21st Century, he said dignity anchors liberty, equality, fraternity and justice, and has been at the centre of judicial thinking from the late 1970s to the present.

 

Justice Gavai traced its constitutional foundation to the Preamble, which assures the “dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation”. He noted B R Ambedkar’s concern that democracy required fraternity and mutual respect, and said courts have consistently read dignity into rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21.

 

 

“To live is to live with dignity… Dignity is the core which unites the fundamental rights,” he said, quoting the privacy judgment in K S Puttaswamy.

 

Reviewing landmark rulings, the CJI cited Sunil Batra and Prem Shankar Shukla which outlawed degrading prison practices, Mohini Jain recognising education as essential to dignity, Vishakha laying down workplace safeguards against sexual harassment, Common Cause affirming the right to die with dignity, and Babita Puniya and Lt Col Nitisha striking down gender bias in the Army.

 

More recent decisions, he noted, have expanded dignity to include digital access for persons with disabilities and struck down caste-based prison manuals that perpetuated inequality. 

 

Justice Gavai also referred to his own judgments, including directions against punitive demolitions that strip individuals of dignity, and a ruling banning hand-pulled rickshaws in Maharashtra as an “inhuman practice” inconsistent with constitutional promises of social and economic justice.

 

“Dignity informs the understanding of autonomy, equality and justice, ensuring that the law protects not just survival but the broader conditions necessary for self-respect and opportunity,” he observed.

 

The lecture also paid tribute to Dr L M Singhvi as a jurist, diplomat and parliamentarian whose contributions ranged from championing Panchayati Raj to conceiving Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

 

Justice Gavai recalled his father’s association with Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha and acknowledged Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi’s efforts to carry forward the legacy through initiatives such as the Singhvi Trinity Scholarship at Cambridge.

 

Concluding, the CJI said the judiciary has treated dignity not merely as a right but as a lens through which all rights must be seen, ensuring the Constitution remains a living instrument responsive to social change while faithful to its founding values.

 

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who was the chief guest, also addressed the gathering. He praised Dr Singhvi as a scholar-statesman whose contributions to law and governance continue to resonate, and underlined that respect for human dignity is the essence of parliamentary democracy. Birla said institutions like the judiciary and legislature draw their strength from the trust of citizens, and that “upholding dignity is essential to maintaining that faith”.