The Constitution of India does not guarantee which one of the following as a fundamental right?

Correct — C, Right to property. Property was a fundamental right when the Constitution came into force, sitting in Part III as Article 19(1)(f), the freedom to acquire, hold and dispose of property, and Article 31, the guarantee against deprivation without authority of law. Three decades of litigation over land reform and bank nationalisation followed, and the Forty-fourth Amendment of 1978 closed it by repealing both provisions and inserting Article 300A in a new Part XII chapter: no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law. That leaves property a constitutional legal right, enforceable in a High Court under Article 226 but not through Article 32, and no longer part of the fundamental-rights guarantee.

• (a)Right to equality — Articles 14 to 18 — equality before law, no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, equality of opportunity in public employment, abolition of untouchability and of titles. Very much a fundamental right.
• (b)Right against exploitation — Articles 23 and 24 prohibit traffic in human beings and forced labour, and bar the employment of children below fourteen in factories, mines or other hazardous work. Both are enforceable fundamental rights.
• (d)Right to carry on trade and business — Article 19(1)(g) guarantees the freedom to practise any profession or carry on any occupation, trade or business, subject to reasonable restrictions under Article 19(6). Note that the amendment of 1978 removed clause (f) on property from the same Article while leaving clause (g) standing.

Part III originally listed seven fundamental rights. The Forty-fourth Amendment Act, 1978, enacted by the Janata government after the Emergency, reduced them to six by taking property out. What replaced it, Article 300A, is a bare protection against executive action: the State may still take your property, but only under the authority of a law.

Two consequences follow, and both are examinable. First, the remedy changes — a violation of Article 300A cannot be taken straight to the Supreme Court under Article 32, because that route is reserved for fundamental rights. Second, the protection extends to 'any person', not merely to citizens, so a company or a foreign national can invoke it, whereas the Article 19 freedoms are citizens' rights alone. The same 1978 amendment also retained a narrow property guarantee inside Part III for minority educational institutions under Article 30(1A) and for land held for personal cultivation within the ceiling limit.

• Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 carried the fundamental right to property until 1978.
• The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 repealed both and inserted Article 300A in Part XII.
• Article 300A reads: no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.
• Property is now a constitutional legal right, enforceable under Article 226 but not under Article 32.
• Article 300A protects 'any person', so its reach is wider than the citizens-only freedoms of Article 19.

• Saying property is no longer a right at all; it remains a constitutional legal right under Article 300A.
• Attributing the change to the 42nd Amendment. The 42nd is the Emergency amendment; the 44th undid much of it and removed property.
• Forgetting that Article 19(1)(g), on trade and business, sits in the same Article and was not touched.

A which-one-is-not question that turns on a single amendment. Fixing the year 1978 and the article number 300A answers most versions of it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 300A of the Constitution of India relates to

  • (a)the right to education
  • (b)the right to property
  • (c)the right to information
  • (d)the right to privacy

  Answer(b) the right to property — inserted by the 44th Amendment Act, 1978.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A person whose property is taken without the authority of law may move

  • (a)the Supreme Court under Article 32 only
  • (b)a High Court under Article 226
  • (c)the National Human Rights Commission alone
  • (d)no court, since the right was repealed

  Answer(b) a High Court under Article 226 — Article 32 is confined to fundamental rights.