Article 15 the Constitution of India

Article 15 the Constitution of India

This article is written by Krishnaraj Choudhary, Student of Dr. Anushka Law College Udaipur. The author in this article has discussed the concept of Article 15 of Indian Constitution

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

(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to -

(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or

(b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

(3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.

(4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

(5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of article 30.”

Sub- Clauses (1) and (2) of Article 15, essentially protect the citizens of India from being discriminated against by the State on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, and place of birth or any of them. It is a right of social equality and equal access to public areas, prohibiting any kind of restriction on any person on the basis of any of the above and to use the public places.

Article 15(3), (4) (5) make special notable exceptions. The first exception permits the State to make special provisions for women and Children. The second and third exceptions empower the State to make special provisions for socially/ educationally backward classes of the country and Schedule castes and scheduled tribes.

Article 15(4) may at the first sight appear to be a blanket provision, protecting any kind of beneficial discrimination in the nature of special provisions for the benefit of the classes mentioned therein. However, apart from questions as to when a particular class can be legitimately regarded as backward class, discriminatory provisions of such a nature may be struck down as unreasonable in the circumstances. It may seem like articles 15(4) and 15(5) violate Article 14 (right to equality), but is not so, as protective discrimination is also a facet of equality. Equality being one of the basic features of the Constitution of India and any treatment of equals unequally and unequal equally would violate the basic structure of the Constitution.

The case State of Madras vs. C. Dorairajan 5 is a historic decision that resulted in the addition of Article 15(4) to the Indian constitution. This is India's first important court decision dealing with reservations. The Madras high court issued a ruling that reserved seats in government positions and higher education institutions based on caste.
According to the Supreme Court, reservation under article 15(4) is purely based on Caste. It further said that article 15(4) does not contain any reservations based on the phrases backward and more backward classes, nor does it give any classification based on the same terms.

Similarly Article 16(4) also empowers the state to make laws for protection of SC and ST. The Articles 15(4) and 16(4) take into account the de facto inequalities which exist in the society. In order to bring about the real equality, preference given to the socially and economically disadvantaged groups is justified. Under Article 14, 15 and 16, the protective discrimination is a facet of quality. Article 15 (4) and 16 (4) lay the foundation for the reservation policy of India. But, reservation of an excessively high percentage of seats in any technical institution for each of the backward classes would be void as it would overcome the purpose of the clause by putting the general public at a disadvantage. For instance, reservation in excess of 50 per cent of available seats may not be upheld.

Article 15(5): The state is empowered under this article to enact provisions that aid in the upliftment of socially and educationally backward communities, such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Under this article, the state has the authority to impose laws that apply to all educational institutes, whether state-aided or not, regardless of the minority educational institutes mentioned in Article 30(1).

Article 15(5), which solely serves as a "enabling section," was added to the 93rd amending act. In the case "Ashoka Kumar Thakur vs Union of India"8, this was determined. In addition, the court declared in the case "T.M.A. Pai Foundation"9 that under Art 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution, an individual has the freedom to create and govern any private educational institution. As a result, the court explicitly stated that art 15(5) does not infringe art 19(1)

While all the above discussed mutually deal with Art 15, the court have always upheld both Art 15(4) and Art 15(5) are valid and both of them are not contradicting to each other.

Mandal Case:
The concept of a creamy layer was used in this case. In the case Indira Sawhney vs Union of India, the idea of a Creamy Layer was established. 10. The Supreme Court ruled that OBCs will be given a 27 percent preference in government positions. In this situation, it was also indicated that the reserve would only be offered for the first phases of appointments and not for the subsequent promotion process.

The total amount of reservations must not surpass 50%. (Because 22.5 percent is already set up for SCs and STs.) Following the Indira Sawhney case, numerous state governments and other governing bodies have voted in favour of the Mandal Report, deeming it genuine. This case was brought up under Article 16(4) of the Constitution.
Article 15(6):
This article gives the government the authority to establish specific provisions for the advancement of "economically weaker groups" of society, including reservations in educational institutions. In 2019, the 103rd amendment was added to the Constitution. In addition, 10% of the reservation must be set aside for EWS, according to the article. This ten percent of reservations is independent of any current reservation ceilings.

Conclusion:
Article 15 is the protector of the oppressed and a shield against discrimination; it has helped Indian society stand tall and proud in the face of enormous diversity, sexism, racism, It has long contributed to India's unity and equality, despite a rigorous caste structure, and it will continue to do so indefinitely.

Article 15 has always gone out of its way to help those who are actually in need. Since its start in 1949, the situation of the oppressed has vastly improved. It serves as a foundation for all the legislature needs to establish provisions to foster societal peace. The number of incidences of atrocities committed against the poor has drastically decreased

Written By:- KR Choudhary