It has been conventionally believed that whereas socioeconomic rights are critical for human survival with dignity, these fall within the domain of the executive and not of courts and the law. The recent experience in India’s Supreme Court has demonstrated that these rights – and in particular the right to food – can be both mandated and enforced by courts. In a landmark petition demanding a legally enforceable right to food, the court has converted food and social protection programmes into legal rights, expanded and universalised these rights, and created an independent mechanism for the enforcement of these rights.