Journal of Human Rights Law and Practice

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAW IN INDIA AND USA

SIDDHARTHA GOSWAMI, Nirupama — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Medical malpractice law is an important confluence of professional ethics and legal accountability in healthcare delivery. With the rapid commercialization in the healthcare, technological advancement, and growing patients’ awareness, medico-legal disputes have increased. This article critically evaluates the development and application of medical malpractice laws in the United States and India from a comparative standpoint by examining the legal systems, court rulings practices and cultural backgrounds of these two countries. Although the basis of culpability in both countries is carelessness, the two legal system differ in adjudicatory method of malpractice claims, damages, burden of proof and patients protection. The study shows that there is a need to balance patient safety and professional accountability, and draws from the US experience to suggest reforms for India. The four universal principles of medical negligence, namely, duty, breach, causation and harm, are known but their legal interpretations, enforcement and systemic impact vary drastically from one place to another. The article offers a comprehensive comparison of medical malpractice law in India and the United States. The article has attempted to provide an inclusive analysis by tracing the historical background of medical malpractice, statutory framework, standards of medical care, burden of proof, judicial procedures, compensation mechanism, health insurance, alternative dispute resolution, and the contemporary challenges confronting healthcare accountability in both India and the United States.

An Academic Look at India's Legal Protections for Children

V. Basil Hans — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Kids are some of the most vulnerable people in society, so they need extra protection to stay alive, grow, and keep their dignity. India has put in place a full set of laws to protect children's rights and health. This article looks at the different constitutional provisions, legislative measures, and institutional processes that work together to keep children safe from abuse, exploitation, neglect, and prejudice. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act are all important legislation that help protect children and promote justice. The essay also talks about how national agencies, law enforcement, and the courts can best enforce these laws. Even if a lot of progress has been made, problems like lack of awareness, gaps in enforcement, and socio-economic inequities still exist. The article ends by stressing the need for better implementation, increased community involvement, and changes to policies to make India a safer and more loving place for children.

Scarred Rights: Analysing Acid Attacks through the Lens of Global Gender Justice and Human Rights Frameworks

Anmol Kumar Shaw, Souvik Roy — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this age of globalization, the legal and discussions of violence against women have moved beyond domestic issues and are now a major part of the discussion on international human rights. This paper examines the use of acid as a form of violence against women from both a gender justice and transnationalism perspective in order to understand how global connections influence social and legal systems and the public’s awareness about this form of gender-based violence. The development of global networks has allowed for the rapid dissemination of progressive / creative / righteous judicial standards (especially as articulated in CEDAW); however, these networks also show serious systemic inequities for local judicial enforcement. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the relationship between transnational human rights advocacy and the development of anti-acid violence legislation in India. Against this context, the more functional regulatory and statutory frameworks that have been effectively implemented in Bangladesh provide a basis for the research to explore the impact of transnational civil society organizations and digital advocacy networks in democratizing survivor narratives and destabilizing the deeply entrenched patriarchal epistemologies that lead to these atrocities. Furthermore, the paper will address on-going structural barriers to justice, which include the failure of governments to provide adequate socio-economic recovery to survivors and the lack of regulations on the commercialization of toxic substances in developing countries. Ultimately, by combining global normative standards with local empirical realities, this research seeks to demonstrate how intersectional policy interventions can be used to leverage globalization as a vehicle for actively transforming the lives of survivors and for fundamentally ending patriarchal violence in society.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA: LEGAL FRAMEWORK, ENFORCEMENT, AND VICTIM PROTECTION

Amanjot Singh Mann — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Human trafficking stands among the gravest violations of human rights in the contemporary world, reducing individuals to commodities to be bought, sold, and exploited for profit. India, with its vast and diverse population, deep structural inequalities rooted in poverty and caste, and extensive borders shared with multiple countries, presents a complex and challenging environment for the prevention and prosecution of trafficking. The country is simultaneously a source, transit, and destination state for trafficked persons, with victims subjected to forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, bonded labour, and organ harvesting.

This research paper critically examines the legal framework governing human trafficking in India, the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms, and the adequacy of protections available to victims. It analyses the relevant constitutional provisions, domestic legislation — including the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, and the proposed Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill — as well as India's obligations under international instruments, particularly the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. The paper identifies significant gaps in the existing legal architecture and proposes recommendations for a more comprehensive, victim-centred, and rights-based approach to combating human trafficking in India.

PROTECTION OF UNDERTRIAL PRISONERS’ RIGHTS IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS

Sukhjeet Kaur, Harmandeep Kaur — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Individuals who are on trial have been accused of committing a crime but their guilt has yet to be decided by a court of law. In India, a high number of inmates are on trial, and many of them are held in prison for extended periods of time owing to delays in the criminal justice system. The Indian Constitution guarantees everyone's fundamental rights, even convicts. However, inmates on trial frequently suffer issues such as overcrowding, protracted confinement, a lack of legal counsel, deplorable living circumstances, and violations of human dignity. This study looks at India's legislative framework for protecting the rights of under-trial inmates. It examines constitutional safeguards, legislation provisions, court rulings, and international human rights norms.

.The study also examines the obstacles that under-trial detainees confront, as well as the role of courts and legal aid institutions in defending their rights. The study indicates that, while India has established a robust legislative framework for prisoner safety, effective execution remains a significant difficulty. The research recommends measures to ensure faster trials, better jail conditions, and more access to legal representation.

Data Privacy and Right to Life under Article 21: Post- Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India Jurisprudence

Basundhara Kundu, Shankar Banerjee, Abhishek Roy, Kyvalya Garikapati — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The “Supreme Court of India” in their judgement in the matter of “Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs Union of India (2017)”, which acknowledged “privacy as a fundamental right” altogether changed the Indian constitutional jurisprudence and the exact association between the individual and the State in the digital age.

According to the ruling, “Article 21 of the Constitution”, that pledges the right to life and personal right, also embraces the right to privacy. The article further relates to the freedom guaranteed in Article 14 and Article 19. The decision was essentially against the backdrop of increasing concerns related to data collection, surveillance, biometric identification systems, digital governance, and an overall intrusion of technology. Earlier judgments, which rejected the idea of the Constitution protecting one’s privacy, were set aside. It paved the way for a fresh body of jurisprudence on informational privacy, bodily integrity, decisional autonomy, and data protection. This paper studies the enlargement of privacy jurisprudence in India with the focus on the post-Puttaswamy scenario. It outlines the constitutional evolution of Article 21 from its narrow interpretation in AK. Gopalan to a wide understanding in Maneka Gandhi and later cases. The paper examines the various doctrinal contributions of the Puttaswamy judgment which includes recognition of informational privacy, proportionality standards, constitutional morality, etc. The implications of this judgment on subsequent judgments, Aadhaar litigation, data protection law, surveillance and other current digital governance are also explored. An examination of the “Digital Personal Data Protection Act”, 2023, with its fundamental safeguards, constitutes another aspect of the study. Furthermore, it emhasizes the continuing challenges of A.I., facial recognition technologies, algorithmic governance and state surveillance.

The paper argues that constitutional revolution begun by Puttaswamy on the protection of privacy will be effective only if we create proper institutions to implement it followed by proper legislation, vigilant judges and public awareness. As said in the conclusion of the study, the future of privacy jurisprudence in India would involve balancing between these technologies and constitutional guarantees like dignity, liberty, and informational autonomy.

The Regulated Revolution: UPI and the Evolving Legal Landscape of Digital Payments in India – A Human Rights Perspective on Issues, Challenges and Regulatory Responses

Basundhara Kundu, SHANKAR BANERJEE, ABHISHEK ROY, KYVALYA GARIKAPATI — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has transformed the digital payments landscape in India, boasting the highest number of monthly transactions in a public digital infrastructure globally, at 10 billion. But the law has been unable to catch up, posing a major problem in terms of regulation. In this context, this paper critically examines the development of digital payments in India in the context of UPI including the legal framework of Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, role and activities of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and UPI's relationship with data protection, competition and liability laws. The paper addresses several key issues such as data localization and cross-border data flows, anti-competitive practices in a concentrated market, merchant discount rate rules, liability for unauthorized transactions, and the legal nature of the recurring payments. The Indian 'sandbox' approach to innovation is the right one, but a broad and comprehensive algorithmic liability regime, systemic risk, and user privacy regime are long overdue. Based on judges' experience, regulatory measures, and EU, China, Singapore, and Brazil's experiences, the paper presents a specific Digital Payments Code. Importantly, the paper embeds these regulatory hurdles in human rights jurisprudence, taking a closer look at how digital financial inclusion relates to constitutionalism safeguarding dignity, equality, privacy and non-discrimination, and advocating that the right to access digital payments be considered an emerging socio-economic right.

Protecting Human Dignity Beyond Death: A Human Rights Framework for Digital Legacy Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Dhiraj Sharma — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The digital age has fundamentally transformed the way individuals create, store, and communicate personal information. Social media profiles, cloud-based records, digital photographs, emails, biometric information, and artificial intelligence-generated content increasingly form an integral part of human identity. Unlike physical possessions, digital footprints often continue to exist long after a person’s death. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have further complicated this reality by enabling the creation of digital avatars, virtual replicas, and interactive simulations of deceased individuals. These developments raise significant legal and human rights concerns regarding privacy, dignity, identity, autonomy, and reputation after death. Existing legal frameworks primarily focus on property succession and data protection during an individual’s lifetime, leaving substantial gaps in the governance of posthumous digital identities. This article examines the concept of digital legacy through the lens of human dignity and argues that legal systems must recognize the continuing significance of an individual’s digital identity beyond death. It proposes a human-rights-based framework for digital legacy governance that balances technological innovation with the protection of posthumous dignity, privacy, and autonomy. The article concludes that emerging technologies require a re-evaluation of traditional legal doctrines and the development of comprehensive international standards to safeguard human dignity in the digital afterlife.

ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A LEGAL AND ETHICAL ANALYSIS

Shayani Chakraborty, Souvik Roy — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On the eve of the twenty first century, India is at a tipping point in the regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) with two legislation Acts namely, the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. This formally introduced the idea of regulation in a space that was previously largely unregulated for more than four decades. This review research paper aims to explore and examine the legal and ethical implications of ART in light of ‘human rights’, with a comprehensive analysis, while questioning the ability of the regulatory framework to ensure the reproductive autonomy, dignity and equality of every individual seeking the aid of ART. Based on a systematic review of the constitutional jurisprudence, landmark Court judgments of Indian Supreme Court and various High Courts, as well as peer-reviewed scholarly literature and state-wise epidemiological data, the current research suggests that the 2021 Acts, though a significant improvement normatively, also have constitutionally questionable and ethically unsound structural exclusions, in particular of LGBTQ+ citizens, single fathers, widowed and divorced women, and economically marginalised groups. Specifically, the above cases: Baby Manji Yamada vs Union of India (2008), Jan Balaz vs Anand Municipality (2009), Suchita Srivastava vs Chandigarh Administration (2009), K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017), and Arun Muthuvel vs Union of India (2022-2025)– indicate a court that is becoming more open-minded to the idea of reproductive rights as fundamental constitutional rights. The paper also calls for a legislative reform, based on rights that places human dignity, autonomy and substantive equality at its heart.