Constitutional Foundations of Welfare Governance in India:A Study of Taxation and Food Regulation as Instruments of Social Justice.
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Abstract
The main question to be examined in this paper will be: what, according to the Indian Constitution, does the state have to do in terms of welfare governance? In particular, it deals with two broad categories, namely taxation and food regulation, not because they are all-encompassing, but because they highlight different aspects of welfare governance in India. One relates to fiscal issues while the other is related to regulatory measures, which, together, indicate the way constitutional requirements are translated into legislation, imperfect as it might be. Welfare governance in India is not discretionary; it is constitutionally mandated. This point is illustrated through the doctrinal analysis of the Indian Constitution, judicial precedents, including the lawsuit over food rights by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, together with the National Food Security Act of 2013. The paper also engages, more briefly, with theoretical questions about what law can and cannot do as an instrument of social change. The conclusion is less triumphant than some constitutional scholarship on this subject: the foundations are strong, the gap between foundation and reality is large, and filling that gap is a political problem as much as a legal one
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