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Informist, Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday declared the right to walk on demarcated footpaths alongside motorised roads as a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. The citizen's fundamental right to walk on a demarcated footpath is primary and shall have priority over motorised vehicles, said a bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar. Clear articulation and declaration of such a right is necessary to recognise the correlative duty to provision and maintain footpaths by urban development authorities, municipal corporations, municipalities, and others.

 

The top court said that there was no legislation relating to right to walk on demarcated footpaths. It is compelling to lay down a statutory framework not only for declaring the right, but also to recognise the duty bearers, said the court. The legislation must protect, enhance, and provide quick remedies for violations, and also establish a full-time regulator to plan, enforce, and implement this precious right, said the court. It directed its registry to send a copy of the judgment to the Ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs, Rural Development, Road Transport and Highways, to reflect on the compelling necessity for initiating the necessary legal framework.

 

A copy may also be sent to the law commission for examining the statutory framework for protecting the right, identifying the duty bearers and provisioning remedies, said the court. The top court re-numbered the case as a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution by changing the cause title to "Re: Fundamental Right to Walk and Footpath". The apex court impleaded government, through the Ministries of Housing and Urban Affairs, Rural Development and Road Transport and Highways, as a party in person.

 

"We have started walking long before wheels were put on our path. The primary right of movement under Article 19(1)(d) is the Fundamental Right to Walk, a right that precedes the right to move on wheels and this precious right must extend to guaranteeing access to safe and well demarcated footpath," said the bench. It is rather strange that the country had failed to focus on recognising and securing this "right to walk". It may be because wheels eclipsed the imagination and the municipal administration was busy creating roads that are suitable for motorised vehicles, said the court. 

 

It could also be elitism to start with, for machines with wheels were only for the rich, but as economies progressed and cheaper motor vehicles were introduced, the entire spectrum of motorised transportation dominated the roads, pushed aside the walkers to the extent that they are treated as a nuisance for the drivers who routinely run over the walkers and their footpaths, said the court. "This should stop from now on as we declare the fundamental right to walk on demarcated footpaths alongside motorised roads," said the court. 

 

It is not at all difficult to imagine how a wide, well-demarcated and uninterrupted footpath can change the beauty of and equitable access to cities and towns--this could truly be transformative of urban and rural living, said the court. "In reality, how much does it take to create a well-demarcated footpath wherever a road exists? All that the fundamental right to walk demands is a comfortable space for an easy and carefree walk. Should this not be the minimum of the minimum duty that a municipal authority owes to the citizens?" said the court.

 

The Supreme Court said that walking has always triggered the Indian imagination- it has deep cultural, social, religious, political, and reformative roots. Walking is a struggle for the not so fortunate, meditation in motion for many, resistance for others, discovery for the inquisitive, a cohesive strategy for sharp socio-political minds, said the apex court. Unfortunately, the country has failed to recognise these aspects to such an extent that the phrase "pedestrian" has acquired pejorative shades. "We labour to emphasise the freedom to walk subject to reasonable restrictions, only to ensure that access to common spaces--in both urban areas and rural areas is distributed in such a way that it is not a monopoly of the motorised class alone," said the court.

 

The apex court enhanced the compensation payable to a father on death of his child due to a tanker coming from behind and striking the boy, with there being neither a footpath and nor a pedestrian crossing. The father and son were walking to the school when the incident happened. Accidents like this continue to occur, perhaps they are inevitable till the country restructure the rights' regime regarding access to roads and recognise their correlative duties, said the court. Till then, the country will continue to cope with these tragedies by routinely transforming them into first information reports and motor accidents claims, said the court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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