A/HRC/34/51/Add.1 are divided into three categories: union, which are central government responsibilities, state and concurrent, which delineate shared responsibilities between both levels of government. Generally speaking, housing and land fall under state jurisdiction, although central Government can introduce national housing programmes. The Seventy-third and the Seventy-fourth Amendment Acts, 1992, to the Constitution also introduced the system of Panchayati Raj, local assemblies of elected officials with decentralized responsibilities in towns and villages in rural areas, and municipalities for financial, functional and political decentralization in urban areas. 10. There is a sophisticated and complex legal system at the national and state levels, with state legislatures and the national parliament sharing various responsibilities in areas of direct relevance to the realization of the rights to housing and non-discrimination. As was often mentioned to the Special Rapporteur, the domestic framework of India is best understood from the perspective of cooperative federalism, an overarching principle that permeates the interactions between the central Government’s policies and decisions, and the states’ devolved responsibilities, strategies and laws. 11. The Constitution of India is frequently referred to as a foundational instrument. It advocates for justice, liberty and equality. Although it does not explicitly enumerate the right to adequate housing as a justiciable right, article 21 indicates that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”, and has thus served to anchor and establish a justiciable right to housing. Several Supreme Court rulings have specifically referred to the right to housing in cases raising right to life issues, explicitly stating that “the State has the constitutional duty to provide shelter to make the right to life meaningful”.11 12. As it stands, there is no national legislation recognizing housing as a human right, although legislation with respect to other human rights, such as the right to food, does exist. The National Food Security Act, which came into force in July 2013, converted preexisting food security and food distribution programmes, such as subsidized cereals, and new programmes like maternity benefits into legal entitlements. It aims to provide more than 800 million people, over 60 per cent of the country’s population, with subsidized monthly household rations each year. The Act shifted from a welfare approach to a rightsbased approach. India has also made education a legal entitlement through the Right to Education Act, which came into force in April 2010, guaranteeing every child between 6 and 14 years old the right to education, in line with article 21A of the Constitution, and requiring 25 per cent of places in private schools to be reserved for the poor and other categories of children. Those laws on food and education are considered models that could be used as a reference for the design and adoption of a national housing law, based on human rights. 13. The Right to Information Act, in force since October 2005, is considered crucial in the fight against corruption, bringing some transparency to what would otherwise be opaque processes. It requires a response to citizens’ requests for information from all constitutional authorities within 30 days and covers the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, any institution or body established or constituted by an act of Parliament or a 11 See for example, Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, in which the Supreme Court stated that the right to life must be understood as the right to live with dignity; Francis Coralie Mullin v. The Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi and Others, in which it stated that the right to life includes the right to live with human dignity, including the bare necessities of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing, and shelter; and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation v. Nawab Khan Gulab Khan and Others. 5