De-Constructing the 'State Action' Doctrine in India: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Traditionally, the threat to human rights emanated solely from the omnipotent State. With the emergence of strong players such as corporations, labour unions, cooperative societies etc, in the world order however, the hegemony of power has been reduced to a fragile and skewed entity. The tectonic shift in traditional power politics engenders particular vulnerability to human right abuses. The threat is exacerbated further by the fact that most Constitutional rights are entirely inapplicable to private actors and control only the ‘State’. In this paper, the authors have examined the vertical approach taken by the Indian Supreme Court and advocate two possible alternatives affording the protection of fundamental rights against non-state actors as well. The first alternative relies on Mark Tushnet's analysis of the application of the horizontal approach in the welfare state whereas the indirect horizontality constitutes the second alternative.