What Fundamental Rights cover
Part III guarantees a range of rights against the State: the right to equality (Articles 14-18), various
freedoms including speech, assembly, and movement (Article 19), protection in respect of conviction for
offences (Article 20), the right to life and personal liberty (Article 21, judicially expanded over decades
to include privacy, a clean environment, livelihood, and more), the right against exploitation (Articles
23-24, including a specific prohibition on child labour in hazardous employment), freedom of religion
(Articles 25-28), and cultural/educational rights for minorities (Articles 29-30). Article 12 defines
“the State” broadly for these purposes, extending beyond central and state government to local bodies
and certain statutory and government-controlled entities.
Article 21 -- the most expansively interpreted right
Article 21's simple text -- “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according
to procedure established by law” -- has been read by the Supreme Court, especially since Maneka Gandhi
v. Union of India (1978), to require that any such procedure be fair, just, and reasonable, not merely
formally enacted. This interpretive shift is why Article 21 today encompasses rights like privacy (affirmed
unanimously in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, 2017), a speedy trial, legal aid for the indigent,
a clean and healthy environment, and livelihood -- none of which appear in the Article's original text but
have all been read into it as facets of a life with dignity.
Enforcing Fundamental Rights -- writ jurisdiction
Article 32 gives the Supreme Court, and Article 226 gives every High Court, the power to issue writs
(habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, and certiorari) to enforce Fundamental Rights. Article
32 itself is treated as a Fundamental Right (famously called the “heart and soul” of the Constitution by
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar), meaning a person can approach the Supreme Court directly for enforcement of these rights,
without necessarily exhausting other remedies first, though courts retain discretion over when to entertain
such petitions. Public Interest Litigation, developed through judicial practice from the late 1970s onward,
has further expanded access by allowing courts to relax standing requirements where a petitioner brings a
matter on behalf of a disadvantaged class unable to approach the court itself.
Can Fundamental Rights be enforced against a private company, or only the government?
Fundamental Rights are generally enforceable against “the State” as defined in Article 12 (government and
its instrumentalities), though certain rights -- like the right against untouchability under Article 17, or
aspects of Article 21 as interpreted in specific contexts -- have been held enforceable against private
parties too.
Are Fundamental Rights absolute, or can the government restrict them?
Most Fundamental Rights are subject to “reasonable restrictions” the government can impose on specified
grounds (public order, morality, sovereignty, and similar), which courts review for reasonableness rather
than treating as an unlimited license to restrict.
Can Parliament amend or remove Fundamental Rights?
Parliament can amend Part III under Article 368, but the Supreme Court's Basic Structure doctrine
(from Kesavananda Bharati, 1973) holds that an amendment cannot destroy the Constitution's basic
structure, which has been held to include the essence of Fundamental Rights in at least some
respects.
