Fundamental Rights and Duties for Karnataka Police Constable Exam 2022

There are multiple choice questions and descriptive questions in Karnataka Constable Exam and in multiple choice questions fundamental rights and duties is a section you need to cover when you are attempting for this exam. In this blog you will find fundamental rights and duties for your Karnataka Police Constable examination. To help you achieve your dream of serving in Karnataka State Police OliveBoard has started a mock test series for Karnataka Police Constable, you can visit our Karnataka Examination Section for more details.

Introduction 

Since school we have heard of fundamental rights and duties. If we understood the importance of fundamental rights and duties or not it doesn’t matter but we are familiar with some fundamental rights and duties. For example, the right to freedom of speech, I bet each one of us used this right to prove our point at some point of our time. So, now what are fundamental rights and duties? What is the Importance of Fundamental rights? And what are the features of fundamental rights? Read this blog to know more about it. 

Fundamental Rights and Duties 

As India has a democratic government and not a dictatorship, it is liable to give some prime rights to its citizens. Fundamental rights and duties are primary rights that a citizen can have and duties are basic responsibilities which a citizen is supposed to do. After a long fight for independence, the then India’s politicians and leaders with the vision of building a great and sustainable democratic country created a constitution. This constitution was derived from the various existing constitutions in the world. Under this constitution citizens are granted with fundamental rights and duties. The idea of Fundamental rights was incorporated in the Nehru report 1928. Inspired by the bill of rights of the US constitution, India introduced Fundamental rights in part III of its constitution. Rightly described as the Magna Carta of India. Fundamental rights and duties are in article 12-35 and 51A respectively. 

Difference between fundamental rights and duties 

To help you remember the difference between fundamental rights and duties are listed below

	Fundamental Rights	Fundamental Duties
Incorporation	The first idea of fundamental  rights was incorporated in Nehru Report 1928	Fundamental duties were incorporated after the recommendation from Swaran Singh Committee 1976
Under the Constitution	Part III, Article 12-35	Part IV, Article 51A
How many	Mainly 6 rights	11
Inspired By	US	USSR
Introduced in	1949	42nd amendments act 1976
Main Amendments	44th amendment 1978 – deletion of right to property from fundamental rights 86th amendment 2002 – Primary education was made a fundamental right (for children between age of 6-14)	86th amendment 2002 – 11th duty was added “who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years”

Fundamental Rights 

The fundamental rights are basic rights given to the citizen of India without any discrimination of caste, religion, race or gender. 

The elementary rights granted for the citizens of India has mainly six fundamental rights i.e,

1. Right to Equality (Article 14-18)
2. Right to Freedom (Article 19-22)
3. Right against Exploitation (Article 23-24)
4. Right to Freedom of Religion (Article 25-28)
5. Cultural and Educational Rights (Article 29-30)
6. Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32)

Fundamental Rights Article 12&13

Fundamental Rights in the Constitution is granted under article 12-35. But the main six fundamental rights are under article 14-32. Article 12 deals with the definition of state. Article 13 deals with Laws Inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights. 

Definition of state – Article 12

” In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, “the State’’ includes the Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India”.

Laws Inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights – Article 13

(1) All laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Part, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void. 

(2) The State shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the rights conferred by this Part and any law made in contravention of this clause shall, to the extent of the contravention, be void.

 (3) In this article, unless the context otherwise requires,—

      (a) “law” includes any Ordinance, order, bye-law, rule, regulation, notification, custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law; 

      (b) “laws in force” includes laws passed or made by a Legislature or other competent authority in the territory of India before the commencement of this Constitution and not previously repealed, notwithstanding that any such law or any part thereof may not be then in operation either at all or in particular areas. 

(4) Nothing in this article shall apply to any amendment of this Constitution made under article 368.

Right to Equality Article 14-18 

The first Fundamental right is Right to equality. 

Article 14- Equality before law and equal protection of laws within the territory of India 

Article 15- Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Article 16- Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.

Article 17- Abolition of Untouchability and prohibition of its practice

Article 18- Abolition of titles except military and academic  

Right to Freedom (Article 19-22)

Article 19 – Under this Article the constitution guarantees to the citizens of India six Fundamental rights of Freedom. As written in the Constitution,

All citizens shall have the Fundamental right— 

(a) to freedom of speech and expression  (Freedom of Press, Media)

(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms 

(c) to form associations or unions 

(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India

(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India

Article 20- It gives the Protection in respect of conviction for offenses

Article 21- It gives the Protection of life and personal liberty to both citizen and non-citizen, article 20 and 21 remain in force even during emergencies. 

Article 21A- Right to education- The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.

Article 22 – Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases. The right is not available to an enemy alien and a person arrested or detained under a law providing preventive detention (detention of person without trial)

Right to against exploitation Article 23 and 24

Article 23- It entails Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labor.

 Article 24-  No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Right to Freedom of Religion Article 25-28

Article 25- Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.

Article 26- Freedom to manage religious affairs.

Article 27- Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.

Article 28- Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions.

Cultural and Educational Rights Article 29-30

Article 29-  Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them. 

Fundamental Rights Article 30-

Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.

Right to Property Article 31 –

Omitted from fundamental rights by the 44th amendment act 1978 and now it considered as a legal right

Right to Constitutional Remedies Article 32

Article 32- It provides the right to the citizens to move to the supreme court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the fundamental rights and it empowers the supreme court to issue direction or writs for the enforcement of the fundamental rights. The writs include habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo-warranto and certiorari, doctor B.R Ambedkar termed the right to constitutional remedies as the heart and soul of the constitution.

Types of Writs 

Writ	Meaning	Intended Purpose
Habeas corpus	You may have the body	To release a person who has been detained unlawfully whether in prison or in private custody
Mandamus	We command	To secure the performance of public duties by lower court, tribunal or public authority
Certiorari	To be certified	To quash the order already passed by an inferior court, tribunal or quasi judicial authority
Prohibition	To forbid	To prohibit an inferior court from continuing the proceedings in a particular case where it has no jurisdiction to try
Quo-Warranto	By what authority or warrant	To restrain a person from holding a public office to which he is not entitled

Fundamental Rights Article 33 –

Power of Parliament to modify the fundamental rights in relation to military or paramilitary forces, police forces and analogous forces.

Fundamental Rights Article 34-

Empowers parliament to make any law for indemnify any person for act done during the operation martial law

Fundamental Rights Article 35-

This article provides for powers to make laws on certain articles in this part only in the parliament and excludes the state legislature jurisdiction from them.  

Fundamental Rights – Amendability

To amend the fundamental rights, both Houses of Parliament must approve a constitutional amendment. A special majority of parliament should pass the amendment bill.Supreme Court has the power to overturn the constitutional amendment if it is violating the basic structure of the constitution. Fundamental rights are subjected to amendment on the condition of non-violation of the basic structure of the constitution. 

Decisions of Supreme Court Regarding Amendment of Fundamental rights 

Year	Case	Verdict
1965	Sajjan Singh vs State of Rajasthan	In addition to amending basic rights, the Parliament may also amend any other part of the Constitution.
1967	Golaknath vs State of Punjab	Parliament had no power to amend fundamental rights of the Constitution
1971	24th amendment 1971	Reaction to the Golaknath case the absolute power of the Parliament to amend any part of the Constitution including Part III i.e, fundamental rights was restored.
1973	Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala	The court held that while the Parliament has ‘wide’ powers, it did not have the power to destroy or emasculate the basic elements or fundamental features of the constitution.

In 1981 supreme court restated the basic structure of the constitution which should not be violated in any type of amendments. 

Fundamental Duties 

• When the Constitution was adopted in the year 1949, there were no provisions regarding Fundamental Duties to the Citizens though there was a Part III for Fundamental Rights.
• The Fundamental Duties of citizens were added to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, upon the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee that was constituted by the Government. 
• The Committee suggested that steps needed to be taken to ensure that the individual did not overlook his duties while in exercise of his Fundamental Rights. 
• By way of the 42nd Constitution (Amendment) Act, 1976, a new Chapter IV-A which consists of only one Article i.e 51-A was added which dealt with a Code of Ten Fundamental Duties for citizens. Originally ten fundamental duties were listed. Later on, by virtue of the 86th Constitution the Amendment in 2002, 11th duty was added
•  Fundamental duties are intended to serve as a constant reminder to every citizen that while the constitution specifically conferred on them certain Fundamental Rights, it also requires citizens to observe certain basic norms of democratic conduct and democratic behavior because fundamental rights and duties are correlative.
•  The inclusion of Fundamental Duties brought our Constitution in line with article 29 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with provisions in several modern Constitutions of other countries. The concept of Fundamental duties was taken from the USSR. 
• The Fundamental duties are essentially taken from the Indian tradition, mythology, religions and practices. Essentially these were the duties that are the codification of tasks integral to the Indian way of life. 

The 11 fundamental duties 

Fundamental duties—It shall be the duty of every citizen of India—

(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem

(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom; 

(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;

(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so; 

(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture; 

(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures;

(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement;

(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.