Chapter - 2
Rights
What are rights?
- Rights allow an individual or a group to develop in society through their legitimate actions and efforts.
What do you understand by rights?
1. Man is a social animal, that is, he lives in society. Man needs some rights to develop himself. The state provides us these rights .
2. Various types of fundamental rights have been given to humans by the Indian Constitution. These rights help humans to develop in society .
3. Human development is not possible without rights, therefore the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights .
Why do we need rights?
- Man needs rights to develop himself and to live a dignified life in society . If man does not get rights, he will not be able to develop himself .
👉 Let us understand rights through two stories
Story - 1
The government hired some contractors for construction work for the 1982 Asian Games. The contractors recruited a large number of poor masons and labourers from different parts of the country to build several flyovers and stadiums . But the labourers were made to work in miserable working conditions. They were paid wages even less than the minimum wages set by the government. After some time, a team of social scientists studied their condition and filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
Story - 2
Machal Lalung was arrested at the age of 23 because he had caused serious injury to someone. During the trial, he was found mentally unwell and was admitted as a prisoner in the Tezpur hospital for treatment. After recovering, the doctors wrote letters to the jail authorities to prosecute him, but he had to remain in jail for 77 years without a trial. Lalung got the opportunity to be freed only when the National Human Rights Commission inspected the prisoners in the state.
👉 Both the above stories show how human rights are exploited because people are not aware of their rights and in both the stories fundamental rights were violated while our constitution gives 'right to life and liberty' to all citizens.
declaration of rights
👉 Listing the rights of citizens in the Constitution is a declaration of rights, the demand for which was raised by Pandit Motilal Nehru in 1928.
Fundamental Rights in Indian Constitution
1. Fundamental rights are described in Part - 3 of the Indian Constitution from Article 12 to 35
2. Part 3 of the Constitution is also known as the Magna Carta of India
3. 7 fundamental rights were included in the Indian constitution out of which the right to property was removed. Currently there are 6 fundamental rights.
👉 Article 31 (Right to Property) was also a fundamental right earlier but it was removed from the list of fundamental rights by the 44th Constitutional Amendment in 1978 and it was made a general legal right under Article (300A).
👉 6 Fundamental Rights
1. Right to Equality (Articles 14 to 18)
2. Right to freedom (Articles 19-22)
3. Right against exploitation (Articles 23-24)
4. Right to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28)
5. Right to culture and education (Articles 29-30)
6. Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32)
1. Right to equality (14 – 18)
1. Equality before the law
2. Equal protection of the laws
3. Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth
4. Equality of entry to shops, hotels, wells, ponds, bathing ghats, roads etc.
5. Equality of opportunity in employment
6. End of untouchability (Article – 17)
7. End of titles
2. Right to freedom (19 – 22 )
1. Right to personal liberty
2. Right to speech and expression
3. Right to peaceful assembly and assembly
4. Right to organize
5. Right to move freely throughout the territory of India and to settle and reside in any part of the territory of India
6. Right to choose any profession, do any business
7. Right to protection of life and personal liberty
8. Right to education
9. Rights of the accused and convicted
3. Right against exploitation (23 – 24)
1. Prohibition of human trafficking and bonded labour
2. Ban on child labour in hazardous jobs
4. Right to religious freedom (25 – 28)
1. Freedom of faith and prayer
2. Management of religious affairs
3. Freedom from paying taxes for the promotion of any particular religion
4. Freedom to attend religious instruction or worship in certain educational institutions
5. Rights related to culture and education (29-30)
1. Right to protection of language and culture of minorities
2. Right of minorities to establish educational institutions
6. Right to Constitutional Remedies (32)
1. Right to move court to enforce fundamental rights
2. Dr. Ambedkar called this right the 'heart and soul' of the Constitution
3. According to this, every citizen has the right to go directly to the High Court (HC) or the Supreme Court if his fundamental rights are violated.
4. The Supreme Court or the High Courts can order the government to enforce the fundamental rights.
5. Courts issue many types of special orders called writs.
👉 These are of five types .
1. Habeas Corpus
- Through habeas corpus, the court orders to present an arrested person before the court. If the method or reason of arrest is illegal or unsatisfactory, then the court can order to release the arrested person.
2. Mandate
- When the court feels that a government official is not following his legal and constitutional obligations and this is affecting the fundamental rights of a person. In such a case, a mandamus is issued by the court .
3. Prohibitory orders
- If a lower court exceeds its jurisdiction to hear a case, then the higher courts (High Court or Supreme Court) issue a 'prohibition order' to stop it from doing so.
4. Rights Question
- When the court feels that a person has been appointed to a post to which he has no legal right, then the court stops him from working on that post by issuing a 'Quo warranto order' .
5. Writ of summons
- When a lower court or government official acts without authority, the court takes away the case pending before it and transfers it to a higher court or official by certiorari. Later, some structures other than the judiciary have been created to protect these rights.
- Like – National Minority Commission, Women Commission etc.
preventive detention
1. A person is arrested when he has committed a crime.
2. Sometimes a person can be arrested on the suspicion that he is going to do some illegal act and then he can be sent to jail for some time without following the procedure described. This is called preventive detention.
3. This means that if the government feels that any person can pose a threat to the law and order or peace and security of the country, then it can arrest him.
4. But preventive detention can only be for a maximum of 3 months. After three months, such cases are brought before an advisory board for review.
Directive Principles of State Policy
1. At the time of drafting the Constitution, the Constitution makers knew that independent India would have to face many challenges.
2. Bringing equality among all citizens and ensuring welfare of all was the biggest challenge.
3. The Constitution makers also thought that some policy guidelines were necessary to solve these problems.
4. Also, they did not want to make these policies binding on future governments.
5. Therefore, although the constitution makers included some directive principles in the Indian constitution, no provision was made to enforce them through the judiciary.
6. This means that if the government does not implement any directive , we cannot go to the court and demand that the court order the government to implement it. That is why it is said that 'Directive Principles of State Policy' are not justiciable.
7. That this is a part of the Constitution which cannot be enforced by the judiciary.
what are the directive principles of state policy
1. The goals and objectives that we must accept as a society
2. Rights that citizens should have in addition to fundamental rights
3. The policies that the government should accept.
4. Governments tried to implement some directive principles from time to time.
5. Several Zamindari Abolition Acts, nationalisation of banks, Factory Act, encouragement of cottage and small-scale industries, fixation of minimum wages and reservation for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes etc. reflect these efforts.
6. Right to education, implementation of Panchayati Raj system in the whole country, employment guarantee, mid-day meal scheme etc.
Directive Principles
And
Fundamental Rights
Relation between Directive Principles and Fundamental Rights
1. Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles can be seen as complementary to each other.
2. While Fundamental Rights impose restrictions on some actions of the government, the Directive Principles encourage it to do certain actions.
3. Fundamental rights talk about the rights of the individual whereas Directive Principles talk about the rights of the entire society
3. Sometimes, while implementing the Directive Principles, it clashes with the Fundamental Rights
Example -
- When the government tried to make a law to abolish the zamindari system
- Then some people of the society opposed it
- It was said that these laws were violating fundamental rights
- But the government had implemented the Zamindari Abolition Act keeping in mind the interest of the society
Fundamental Duties
By the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976, Article 51(A) was inserted in the list of fundamental duties of citizens .
According to this, eleven fundamental duties of citizens have been described
1. To abide by the Constitution, respect the National Flag and National Anthem.
2. To cherish and follow the high ideals that inspired the national movement.
3. To protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
4. To be ready to defend and serve the nation.
5. To create brotherhood among citizens.
6. Preserve and protect the natural environment.
7. Understand the importance of the glorious tradition of our social culture and maintain it.
8. Develop scientific outlook, humanism and the possibility of acquiring knowledge and improvement.
9. Keep public property safe, make Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a success and stay away from violence.
10. Strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activities.
11. Provision of primary education for children between 6 and 14 years of age by parents or guardians. (Amendment 86)
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