WHEN we order food through platforms such as Swiggy or Zomato or book tickets on BookMyShow, we exercise legal capacity. Legal capacity is the ability to make legally binding decisions and have them recognised under the law.
Under the law, you and the service-providing platform have a contractual agreement that helps you exercise and uphold your rights. Legal capacity is fundamental to autonomy and personhood and allows individuals to make choices and act on their own behalf.
Legal capacity underpins how we navigate daily life, from simple actions such as purchasing meals (paying money and buying food) to complex decisions about finances (opening a bank account) or healthcare (whether to accept or reject a treatment).
The exercise of legal capacity depends on decision-making abilities, and the law typically presumes that individuals with a ‘sound mind’ have legal capacity. For persons with disabilities, especially with intellectual disabilities, legal capacity exists as a human right in rights-based frameworks but is missing in their lived experience.
