India, July 6 -- "Walking is man's best medicine. If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk." - Hippocrates.

Walking is humanity's oldest and most natural mode of movement. Long before wheels transformed travel, human beings walked-to work, worship, protest, and dream. The Supreme Court, in Maniyar Iliyaz @ Shaik Riyaz v. P. Ayyappan (decided on June 19, 2026), has transformed a father's tragic loss of his five-year-old son, crushed by a tanker while walking to school on a road without a footpath, into a constitutional milestone.

While deciding a motor accident claim, the Court elevated the right to walk on safe, demarcated footpaths to the status of a fundamental right under Part III ...