Which of the following rights is NOT enjoyed by a British citizen residing in India?
- (a)Freedom of Trade and Profession
- (b)Equality Before Law
- (c)Freedom of Life and Liberty
- (d)Religious Freedom (Faith)
Correct — A, Freedom of Trade and Profession.
Part III addresses two kinds of holder. Some Articles protect 'any person' or 'all persons'; a smaller set protects 'citizens'. A British citizen living in India is a person before Indian law but not an Indian citizen, so he holds the first group and cannot claim the second.
Freedom of Trade and Profession is Article 19(1)(g), and Article 19 opens with the words 'All citizens shall have the right'. That opening confines the six Article 19 freedoms to citizens, so a foreigner cannot claim trade or profession as a Fundamental Right.
He may still run a business in India under ordinary law and the permissions it requires, but if the State restricts him he has no Article 19 case to bring. The other three options — Articles 14, 21 and 25 — each say 'person', and a foreigner holds them.
Before asking what a right is, ask whom the Article names — 'citizen' or 'person'.
- (b)Equality Before Law — 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. The word is person, not citizen, so a British national in India stands equal before Indian courts and Indian law.
It is the right answer to which Fundamental Right gives a foreigner in India equality before the law.
- (c)Freedom of Life and Liberty — Article 21 reads 'No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law'. It protects a foreigner as fully as a citizen.
In Railway Board v. Chandrima Das (2000) the Supreme Court upheld compensation under Article 21 for a Bangladeshi national assaulted by railway employees at Howrah station.
It is the right answer to which Fundamental Right protects a foreigner's life and personal liberty in India.
- (d)Religious Freedom (Faith) — Article 25 makes 'all persons' equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality and health. A British citizen in India may hold and preach his faith on the same footing as an Indian.
It is the right answer to which Fundamental Right lets a foreigner in India profess and practise his religion.
Fundamental Rights in Part III are addressed to two different holders. Where an Article says 'any person' or 'no person', as Articles 14, 21 and 25 do, the right belongs to anyone within Indian territory, citizen or foreigner.
Where it says 'citizen', as Article 19 does, the right is confined to Indian citizens.
The line is drawn by the text of each Article, not by where the person lives. Residence in India makes a foreigner a person under Indian law; it does not make him a citizen, and citizenship itself is governed by Part II and the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The distinction reflects what the State owes to whom. Anyone within India's borders gets the rule of law, protection of life and liberty, and freedom of belief, because those are treated as protections of the human being.
A Fundamental Right to take part in the country's public and economic life — public employment, movement, residence, trade — is reserved for its citizens.
The same test settles neighbouring cases. The Supreme Court has held that a company is not a citizen for Article 19 (State Trading Corporation v. Commercial Tax Officer, 1963), and clause 22(3)(a) expressly withholds the arrest safeguards of Article 22 from an enemy alien.
- Article 19 opens 'All citizens shall have the right'; freedom to practise any profession or carry on any occupation, trade or business is clause 19(1)(g).
- Article 14 forbids the State to deny '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' — the word is person, not citizen.
- Article 25 makes 'all persons' equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.
- By their wording Articles 15, 16, 19 and 29 protect citizens, while Articles 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 protect persons, foreigners included.
- Article 22(3)(a) withholds the arrest and detention safeguards of clauses 22(1) and 22(2) from a person who is for the time being an enemy alien.
- The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 deleted the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property from Article 19, leaving six freedoms.
- The 97th Amendment Act, 2011 added 'co-operative societies' to Article 19(1)(c), which now reads 'to form associations or unions or co-operative societies'.
- In Louis De Raedt v. Union of India (1991) the Supreme Court held a foreigner's fundamental right is confined to Article 21 and excludes Article 19(1)(e) residence.
- In Railway Board v. Chandrima Das (2000) the Supreme Court upheld compensation under Article 21 for a Bangladeshi national assaulted by railway employees at Howrah station.
Left column: rights the Constitution words for citizens, out of a British citizen's reach. Right column: 'person' rights he can claim in India. Option (a) sits top-left.
- Reading 'residing in India' as if residence carried citizen-rights; a resident foreigner is a person under Part III, not a citizen.
- Concluding that because a foreigner may lawfully run a business in India under permits, he holds a Fundamental Right to trade; statutory permission is not Article 19(1)(g).
- Filing 'Freedom of Life and Liberty' under Article 19 because of the word 'freedom'; life and personal liberty sit in Article 21, which speaks of 'person'.
- Linking religion to citizenship because Article 15 bars discrimination on religion 'against any citizen'; the freedom to profess religion is Article 25, which says 'all persons'.
- Answering from the wording of an option rather than the Article behind it — 'protection of life and personal liberty' and 'freedom of life and liberty' both mean Article 21.
The idea is set as an odd-one-out: a foreigner as the subject, three rights worded for 'person' and one Article 19 freedom. It can be reversed — which right a foreigner can claim — or the subject swapped for a company or an enemy alien.
Option wording drifts between papers ('protection of life and personal liberty' in one, 'freedom of life and liberty' in another), so the safe anchor is the Article number behind each phrase.
UPSC_1999_GS1_Q311999In substance the same question: a British citizen in India, the same four rights, and the same keyed answer, freedom of trade and profession. UPSC framed it as 'cannot claim Right to' and worded the Article 21 option 'Protection of life and personal liberty'; UKPSC's 'Freedom of Life and Liberty' points to the same Article.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A French national on a tourist visa is arrested in Jaipur. Which one of the following Fundamental Rights can she invoke?
- (a)Article 15 — protection against discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth
- (b)Article 16 — equality of opportunity in matters of public employment
- (c)Article 22 — protection against arrest and detention in certain cases
- (d)Article 29 — right of a section of citizens to conserve its language, script or culture
Answerc — Article 22(1) says 'No person who is arrested' shall be held without being told the grounds or denied a lawyer, and clause 22(3)(a) withholds those safeguards from an enemy alien, which a French tourist is not.Articles 15 and 16 say 'citizen' and Article 29 says 'any section of the citizens'; each of the other three is worded for citizens, which she is not.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is NOT a freedom guaranteed by Article 19(1) of the Constitution as it stands today?
- (a)To form associations or unions or co-operative societies
- (b)To acquire, hold and dispose of property
- (c)To reside and settle in any part of the territory of India
- (d)To practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business
Answerb — the freedom to acquire, hold and dispose of property was clause 19(1)(f) until the 44th Amendment Act, 1978 deleted it, leaving six freedoms.Option (a) is 19(1)(c), with 'co-operative societies' added by the 97th Amendment in 2011; (c) is 19(1)(e); (d) is 19(1)(g), the very freedom a foreigner cannot claim.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about a foreign national lawfully staying in India: 1. He can claim freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a). 2. He can claim protection against being prosecuted and punished twice for the same offence under Article 20(2). 3. He can claim freedom of conscience under Article 25. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answerb — Article 20(2) says 'No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once' and Article 25 says 'all persons', so statements 2 and 3 hold for a foreigner.Statement 1 fails because Article 19, including 19(1)(a), opens with 'All citizens shall have the right'. Options (a), (c) and (d) each keep statement 1, so each is wrong.