A British Citizen staying in India can not claim right to

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — A, Freedom of trade and profession. The whole question is decided by the opening words of the relevant articles. Article 19(1) begins 'All citizens shall have the right...' and then lists six freedoms, of which the sixth, Article 19(1)(g), is the right to practise any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. Because the article confers those freedoms on citizens and not on persons generally, a foreign national in India — a British citizen, for this question — cannot claim any of them. The other three options are drawn from articles that use the word 'person'. Article 14 says the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. Article 21 says no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Article 25 entitles all persons equally to freedom of conscience and to the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. Each of those extends to aliens as much as to citizens, so none of them is a right a British citizen in India is denied. It is worth adding, as corroboration rather than as this paper's answer, that UPSC set this question in near-identical terms in 1999 and its published key names the freedom of trade and profession. BPSC published no answer key for this sitting, so that agreement is external evidence, not confirmation — but it points the same way as the constitutional text, which is what actually settles it.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) Article 14 is expressly framed in favour of 'any person', which the Supreme Court has read to include foreigners and even legal persons such as companies. Equality before the law is one of the guarantees an alien in India carries with him; it is not withheld on grounds of nationality.  (c) Article 21 protects 'no person', not 'no citizen', and this is not a technicality — it is precisely why a foreign national facing detention or deportation in India can approach the courts under Article 21. Denying it to aliens would empty the article of much of its practical work.  (d) Article 25 speaks of 'all persons' being equally entitled to freedom of conscience and to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health. A visitor's faith is not conditional on a passport, and the framers used 'persons' here deliberately, in contrast with the 'citizens' of Article 19.

Concept: Part III of the Constitution divides its guarantees into two classes, and the division is visible in the text itself. Rights available only to citizens are conferred by Article 15 (no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), Article 16 (equality of opportunity in public employment), Article 19 (the six freedoms), and Articles 29 and 30 (cultural and educational rights of minorities). Rights available to all persons, citizens and aliens alike, include Article 14 (equality before the law), Article 20 (protection in respect of conviction for offences), Article 21 (life and personal liberty), Article 21A (education), Article 22 (protection against arrest and detention, with the exception that an enemy alien cannot claim clauses (1) and (2)), Articles 23 and 24 (against trafficking, forced labour and child labour), and Articles 25 to 28 (freedom of religion). Article 19 has itself changed: the right to property, once Article 19(1)(f), was removed by the Forty-fourth Amendment in 1978 and became a constitutional right under Article 300A, leaving six freedoms where there were seven, and the right to form co-operative societies was added to clause (1)(c) in 2011.

State PCS 2025 Q118 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q118 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer