Fundamental Rights MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: A - Privileges

Equality in a society means the absence of special privileges granted to some individuals or groups, so that all are treated alike before the law. It does not require the absence of restraints, since reasonable restraints apply equally to everyone. Competition and ideology are not what equality seeks to remove. Hence the correct answer is privileges.

Correct answer: C - Article 21

The Supreme Court in the K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) judgment held that the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right protected as part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, option (c). Article 15 deals with prohibition of discrimination, Article 19 with freedoms like speech and movement, and Article 29 with cultural and educational rights of minorities, none of which is the primary source of the privacy right. Hence Article 21 is the correct answer.

Correct answer: B - Legal right available to any person

After the 44th Amendment (1978) removed the Right to Property from the list of fundamental rights, it became an ordinary legal/constitutional right under Article 300A, which states that no person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law. Because Article 300A protects 'any person' and not only citizens, the right to property is a legal right available to any person, option (b). It is therefore neither a fundamental right (c) nor confined to citizens, and option (d) is wrong since the right does exist.

Correct answer: B - Only two

Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Article 355 places a duty on the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance. Article 22(3) expressly denies the rights of being informed of grounds of arrest and of consulting a legal practitioner to persons detained under preventive detention laws, so the State is constitutionally exempted from providing such counsel. Statement 3 is incorrect because POTA, 2002 departed from ordinary evidence law and made confessions recorded before a police officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police or above admissible as evidence.

Correct answer: C - I and III only

An ordinance promulgated under Article 123 has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, so it can amend any Central Act and can also be given retrospective operation, making statements I and III correct. However, an ordinance is 'law' within the meaning of Article 13, so just like an ordinary statute it cannot abridge or take away a Fundamental Right; statement II is therefore incorrect. This eliminates options (a), (b) and (d), leaving (c) as the answer.

Correct answer: C - Article 21 and the freedoms guaranteed in Part III

In the Puttaswamy judgment the right to privacy was held to be an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, read with the freedoms guaranteed in Part III, so (c) is correct. Article 14 with the 42nd Amendment (a), Article 17 with the Directive Principles (b), and Article 24 with the 44th Amendment (d) do not capture the constitutional basis of privacy. The link between Article 21 and the broader fundamental rights of Part III is what grounds the right to privacy.

Correct answer: D - 1, 2 and 3

The question asks which statements are NOT correct. Statement 1 is not correct because the Supreme Court held that Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are not 'titles' banned under Article 18(1). Statement 2 is not correct since the Padma Awards (instituted 1954) were suspended twice, in 1977-80 and 1992-95, not only once. Statement 3 is not correct because Bharat Ratna is limited to a maximum of three, not five, recipients in a year. As all three are wrong, the answer is 1, 2 and 3, option (d).

Correct answer: A - 1st Amendment

The First Amendment Act, 1951 (option a) was enacted largely to overcome court rulings that had interpreted Fundamental Rights restrictively against the State's reform agenda. It added the Ninth Schedule to shield land-reform laws from judicial review, and amended Articles 15, 19 and 31 to permit reasonable restrictions on free speech and to validate special provisions for backward classes following judgments such as Champakam Dorairajan and Romesh Thappar. The 42nd Amendment (b) was the sweeping 'mini-constitution' of the Emergency era. The 44th (c) restored several safeguards and made the right to property a legal right. The 86th (d) added the right to education (Article 21A).