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Fundamental rights in India Fundamental rights is a charter of rights contained in the Constitution of India. It guarantees civil liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace and harmony as citizens of India. These include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, and peaceful assembly, freedom to practice religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights by means of writs such as habeas corpus. Violation of these rights result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code or other special laws, subject to discretion of the judiciary. The Fundamental Rights are defined as basic human freedoms which every Indian citizen has the right to enjoy for a proper and harmonious development of personality. These rights universally apply to all citizens, irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste or gender. Aliens (persons who are not citizens) are also considered in matters like equality before law. They are enforceable by the courts, subject to certain restrictions. The Rights have their origins in many sources, including England's Bill of Rights, the United States Bill of Rights and France's Declaration of the Rights of Man. The eight fundamental rights recognised by the Indian constitution are: [1] 1. Right to equality: Which includes equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, gender or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in matters of employment, abolition of untouchability and abolition of titles. 2. Right to freedom: Which includes speech and expression, assembly, association or union or cooperatives, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation (some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality), right to life and liberty, right to education, protection in respect to conviction in offences and protection against arrest and detention in certain cases. 3. Right against exploitation: Which prohibits all forms of forced labor, child labour and traffic of human beings; 4. Right to freedom of religion: Which includes freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion, freedom to manage religious affairs, freedom from certain taxes and freedom from religious instructions in certain educational institutes. 5. Cultural and Educational rights: Preserve the right of any section of citizens to conserve their culture, language or script, and right of minorities to establish and
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administer educational institutions of their choice. 6. Right to constitutional remedies: Which is present for enforcement of Fundamental Rights. 7. Right to elementary education: Which implies that any child between the age of 6 to 14 should and can be educated. 8. Right to Information. Right to property was originally a fundamental right, but under 44th Amendment Act, right to property ceased to be a Fundamental right. Instead the right to property is mentioned under 300A of Indian Constitution, stating that no person can be deprived of his property save by law. Fundamental rights for Indians have also been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they have also been used to abolish untouchability and thus prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They also forbid trafficking of human beings and forced labor. They also protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and also establish and administer their own education institutions. The Fundamental Rights in Indian constitution acts as a guarantee that all Indian citizens can and will live their lifes in peace as long as they live in Indian democracy. They include individual rigts common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before the law, freddom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil right. Originally, the right to property was also included in the Fundamental Rights, however, the Forty-Fourth Amendment, passed in 1978, revised the status of property rights by stating that "No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law." Following are the Fundamental Rights in India presented in tabular form
Right to Equality
Article 14 :- Equality before law and equal protection of law Article 15 :- Prohibition of discrimination on grounds only
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of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Article 16 :- Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment Article 17 :- End of untouchability Article 18 :- Abolition of titles, Military and academic distinctions are, however, exempted Article 19 :- It guarantees the citizens of India the following six fundamentals freedoms:1. Freedom of Speech and Expression 2. Freedom of Assembly 3. Freedom of form Associations 4. Freedom of Movement Right to Freedom
5. Freedom of Residence and Settlement 6. Freedom of Profession, Occupation, Trade and Bussiness Article 20 :- Protection in respect of conviction for offences Article 21 :- Protection of life and personal liberty Article 22 :- Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases
Right Exploitation
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Article 23 :- Traffic in human beings prohibited
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Article 24 :- No child below the age of 14 can be employed Article 25 :- Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion Right to freedom of Religion
Article 26 :- Freedom to manage religious affairs Article 27 :- Prohibits taxes on religious grounds Article 28 :- Freedom as to attendance at religious ceremonies in certain educational institutions Article 29 :- Protection of interests of minorities
Cultural and Educational Rights
Article 30 :- Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions Article 31 :- Omitted by the 44th Amendment Act
Right to Constitutional Remedies
Article 32 :- The right to move the Supreme Court in case of their violation (called Soul and heart of the Constitution by BR Ambedkar) Forms of Writ check Habeas Corpus :- Equality before law and equal protection of law
Critical analysis The fundamental rights have been revised for many reasons. Political groups have demanded that the right to work, the right to economic assistance in case of unemployment, old age, and similar rights be enshrined as constitutional guarantees to
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address issues of poverty and economic insecurity,[40] though these provisions have been enshrined in theDirective Principles of state policy.[41] The right to freedom and personal liberty has a number of limiting clauses, and thus have been criticised for failing to check the sanctioning of powers often deemed "excessive".[40] There is also the provision of preventive detention and suspension of fundamental rights in times of Emergency. The provisions of acts like the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and the National Security Act (NSA) are a means of countering the fundamental rights, because they sanction excessive powers with the aim of fighting internal and cross-border terrorism and political violence, without safeguards for civil rights.[40] The phrases "security of State", "public order" and "morality" are of wide implication. People of alternate sexuality are criminalized in India with prison term up to 10 years. The meaning of phrases like "reasonable restrictions" and "the interest of public order" have not been explicitly stated in the constitution, and this ambiguity leads to unnecessary litigation.[40] The freedom to assemble peaceably and without arms is exercised, but in some cases, these meetings are broken up by the police through the use of non-fatal methods.[42][43] "Freedom of press" has not been included in the right to freedom, which is necessary for formulating public opinion and to make freedom of expression more legitimate. [40] Employment of child labour in hazardous job environments has been reduced, but their employment even in non-hazardous jobs, including their prevalent employment as domestic help violates the spirit and ideals of the constitution. More than 16.5 million children are employed and working in India.[44] India was ranked 88 out of 159 in 2005, according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians worldwide.[45] The right to equality in matters regarding public employment shall not be conferred to overseas citizens of India, according to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003.[9] As per Article 19 of Part 3 of the Indian constitution, the fundamental rights of people such as freedom of speech and expression, gathering peaceably without arms and forming associations or unions shall not effect the interests of the sovereignty[46] and integrity of India but not unity of India. The words sovereignty and integrity are the qualities to be cultivated / emulated by Indian people as urged by the Indian constitution but not used related to territory of India. Article 1 of Part 1 of the Indian constitution,defines India (Bharat) as union of sovereign states. Constitutional amendment under Article 368 provides for peaceful division of India in to number of countries provided fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian constitution are ensured
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in the resultant countries. In nutshell, India is its people not its land as enshrined in its constitution.
Amendments Changes to the fundamental rights require a constitutional amendment which has to be passed by a special majority of both houses of Parliament. This means that an amendment requires the approval of two-thirds of the members present and voting. However, the number of members voting should not be less than the simple majority of the house – whether the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. The right to education at elementary level has been made one of the fundamental rights under the Eighty-Sixth Amendment of 2002.[34]
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