Articles 17 and 18, and the scheme of Article 19: the six freedoms and reasonable restrictions
LUG-104 Constitutional Law-I, Unit II: Fundamental freedoms (Article 19). · LLB · 60 min
Articles 17 and 18 open this lecture: the abolition of untouchability and its enforcement through the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (State of Karnataka v. Appa Balu Ingale), and the abolition of titles (Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India on the Padma awards). The greater part of the lecture is the architecture of Article 19: the six freedoms in clause (1), their availability to citizens only, the deletion of the right to property by the 44th Amendment, the scheme of reasonable restrictions in clauses (2) to (6), the tests of reasonableness from Chintaman Rao and State of Madras v. V.G. Row to modern proportionality, and the 'direct and inevitable effect' test. The 2025-26 seven-mark question on the six freedoms and their restrictions is answered here and in the two lectures that follow.
Objectives
- Explain Article 17, the meaning of untouchability, and the statutes that enforce the abolition.
- Explain Article 18 and the decision in Balaji Raghavan on national awards.
- List the six freedoms in Article 19(1), the persons who can claim them and the clauses that restrict each.
- Apply the tests of reasonableness (Chintaman Rao, V.G. Row, proportionality) to a restriction.
- Explain the 'direct and inevitable effect' test and the requirement that restrictions be imposed by law.
Slides
- Article 17: abolition of untouchability
- Enforcing Article 17: the Atrocities Act and Appa Balu Ingale
- Article 18: abolition of titles and the Padma awards
- Article 19(1): the six freedoms and who may claim them
- The scheme of restrictions: clauses (2) to (6)
- Tests of reasonableness I: Chintaman Rao (1950) and V.G. Row (1952)
- Tests of reasonableness II: the summary in Papnasam and modern proportionality
- The 'direct and inevitable effect' test and the inter-relation of the freedoms
- Each freedom in one paragraph: a map for Lectures 6 and 7
- How the examiner asks it
Loading the lecture…