Title: Enforcing the right to adequate housing within the Indian Constitution: a lesson for Canada

Authors: Boitumelo Mmusinyane

Addresses: College of Law, Department of Private Law, UNISA, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria – 0003, South Africa

Abstract: India and Canada have adopted diverse approaches to realising the right to adequate housing. In Canada, the right to adequate housing is not entrenched under its Constitution and is merely pursued through policy-driven objectives that are not amenable to a judicial review to establish whether or not these policy objectives have been fulfilled. This approach is inadequate and this article argues that it leaves the marginalised victim with little hope of finding any remedy. In India, however, the right to shelter is regarded as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy and its courts have seized their judicial powers of review to ensure justiciability by interpreting existing constitutional provisions to safeguard the right to shelter. This paper will illustrate that the Canadian judiciary can invoke and draw inspirations from the Indian judicial system to determine if its policy measures fulfil the stated objectives.

Keywords: housing; judicial review; justiciability; India; Canada; Indian Constitution; constitutional law; rights enforcement; Canadian Constitution; policy-driven objectives; marginalised victims; legal remedies; shelter; directive principles; state policy; law courts; judicial powers; judiciary; judges; judicial interpretation; constitutional provisions; legal safeguards; human rights; judicial systems; policy measures; public law; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLAP.2012.046072

International Journal of Public Law and Policy, 2012 Vol.2 No.2, pp.162 - 175

Published online: 20 Sep 2014 *

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