MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 75 of 100

Correct — D, a legal right. The 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 deleted Article 19(1)(f) (the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property) and Article 31 (compulsory acquisition of property) from Part III, and inserted Article 300A in Part XII under the heading 'Right to property': 'No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.' So the right survives in the Constitution — but outside the chapter on Fundamental Rights. In practical terms that changes the remedy: a person whose property is taken without authority of law cannot move the Supreme Court directly under Article 32 (which is available only for Fundamental Rights); the remedy lies in a High Court under Article 226 or in the ordinary courts. Note also that Article 300A protects 'any person', not only citizens — unlike the old Article 19(1)(f), which was a citizens-only right.

• (a)Fundamental Right — True until 1978, not after. The right to property was a Fundamental Right under Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 in the original Constitution; the 44th Amendment removed both. The question's words 'in present times' are there precisely to close this option.
• (b)Directive Principles of State Policy — The right to property has never been a Directive Principle. Part IV does touch property policy — Article 39(b) and (c) speak of distributing material resources to serve the common good and of preventing concentration of wealth — but that is a direction to the State, not a right of the individual.
• (c)Human Right — The most tempting distractor, and not baseless — the Supreme Court has more than once described the right to property as a human or constitutional right when the State has taken land without following the law. But 'human right' is not a category the Constitution uses to classify rights. Within the Constitution's own scheme, after 1978 the right sits in Article 300A as a legal (constitutional) right — the classification the official key accepts.

The Constitution grades rights by where they are placed. Rights in Part III are Fundamental Rights, directly enforceable in the Supreme Court under Article 32. Rights placed elsewhere in the Constitution are constitutional or legal rights: they bind the State just as much, but the remedy is an ordinary writ or suit, not Article 32. Property moved from the first category to the second in 1978, after nearly three decades of collision between land reform legislation and Articles 19(1)(f) and 31 — a collision that had produced the First Amendment, the Ninth Schedule, and a long line of litigation.

Read the phrase 'in present times' as an instruction: the examiner is testing whether you know the position changed. Fix the chain — Fundamental Right until the 44th Amendment (1978) → thereafter Article 300A in Part XII → therefore a legal/constitutional right → therefore no direct Article 32 remedy, and it protects 'any person', not just citizens.

• The 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978 repealed Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31, removing the right to property from the Fundamental Rights.
• Article 300A (Part XII): 'No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law' — inserted by the same amendment.
• Because it is not in Part III, a breach of Article 300A cannot be taken straight to the Supreme Court under Article 32; the remedy is Article 226 or the ordinary courts.
• Article 300A protects any person, including non-citizens — the repealed Article 19(1)(f) had been available only to citizens.
• One property-related guarantee remains in Part III: Article 30(1A) requires that compensation for compulsory acquisition of a minority educational institution's property not restrict the right guaranteed by Article 30(1).

• Answering 'Fundamental Right' out of habit and missing the qualifier 'in present times'
• Treating 'human right' as a constitutional category — the Constitution classifies by Part, not by that label
• Assuming Article 300A can be enforced under Article 32; the Article 32 remedy is confined to Fundamental Rights

MPPSC asks it as a one-line classification or as 'which amendment deleted it'. UPSC prefers the sharper version — the exact position of the right (legal right available to any person) or statement questions mixing up the Article number, the amendment and the category.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 300A of the Constitution of India was inserted by which Constitutional Amendment Act?

  • (a)42nd Amendment Act, 1976
  • (b)44th Amendment Act, 1978
  • (c)24th Amendment Act, 1971
  • (d)25th Amendment Act, 1971

  Answer(b) 44th Amendment Act, 1978 — the same amendment repealed Articles 19(1)(f) and 31.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The protection of Article 300A ('No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law') is available to:

  • (a)citizens of India only
  • (b)any person, including non-citizens
  • (c)Indian companies only
  • (d)agriculturists only

  Answer(b) any person, including non-citizens — the Article uses the word 'person', unlike the repealed Article 19(1)(f), which was a citizens-only right.