The Bombay High Court said the right to livelihood enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to live in safe buildings and houses and that the owner of the structure, whether private or a public body, had a constitutional obligation to ensure this safety.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni passed its judgment on public interest litigation taken up suo motu (on its own) following a series of building collapses in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. The court in the petition also took note of illegal structures mushrooming across the state. The court said such incidents, where people lose their lives due to building collapses, need to be eradicated completely.