Articles 23 and 24: the right against exploitation
LUG-104 Constitutional Law-I, Unit III: Right against exploitation (Articles 23–24). · LLB · 50 min
Articles 23 and 24 are the Constitution's answer to slavery, trafficking, forced labour and child labour. They are unusual among fundamental rights because they bind private persons as well as the State. The lecture reads both Articles, explains 'traffic in human beings', 'begar' and 'forced labour' with the Supreme Court's decision in PUDR (the Asiad workers case) that payment below the minimum wage is forced labour, the bonded labour cases and the Act of 1976, the exception for compulsory public service in Article 23(2), and then Article 24 with M.C. Mehta (Sivakasi), the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 as amended in 2016 and Bachpan Bachao Andolan. The topic has not been asked directly in recent papers but is a standard short note and strengthens any Article 21 answer.
Objectives
- Explain the meaning of 'traffic in human beings', 'begar' and 'other similar forms of forced labour' in Article 23(1).
- State the rule in PUDR v. Union of India that labour below the minimum wage is forced labour, and the presumption of bondage in Bandhua Mukti Morcha.
- Describe the exception in Article 23(2) and its limits.
- Explain Article 24, the 1986 Act as amended in 2016, and the rehabilitation scheme in M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu.
- Write a short note or 7-mark answer on the right against exploitation with the right statutes and cases.
Slides
- What Articles 23 and 24 say
- Traffic in human beings
- Begar and forced labour: PUDR and Sanjit Roy
- Bonded labour: Bandhua Mukti Morcha and the Act of 1976
- Article 23(2): compulsory service for public purposes
- Article 24 and the child labour statutes
- M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu (1996): the Sivakasi scheme
- Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the constitutional web around the child
- Enforcement: who can sue, against whom, and for what
- How the examiner asks it
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