What is the imporatnce of Artcile 15 in the Constitution?

Author: Associate Aswini Ramesh

In India, the constitution is the supreme law of the land. As declared in the preamble of the constitution, India is a secular, democratic and republic nation which has created the necessary provisions to safeguard the interests of the entire population of the country.

Presence of Article 15 in the Indian Constitution

Article 15 is present in the Indian Constitution under Part III which deals with the fundamental rights of the people of India. Article 12 to 18 wholly deals with various issues relating to “Right to equity”

Fundamental Rights according to Article 15 

Fundamental rights are the basic or civil liberties that are available to Indian citizens just by virtue of living in the country. The Part III covers articles 12 to 35 and all of them are dedicated to protecting the individual rights that are common to most democratic countries in the world for instance freedom of speech and expression, equality before the law, freedom of peaceful assembly, right to seek constitutional remedies related to protection of civil rights through writs etc.,

Scope of Fundamental Rights according to Article 15

Fundamental rights are rights which are available to all citizens of the country irrespective of place of birth, race, religion, caste or gender. The fundamental rights specified in the Indian constitution have their origin from different sources like the United States Bill of Rights, France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and England’s Bill of Rights. If any citizen of India witnesses or is subject to violation of fundamental rights he or she can approach the Supreme Court of India to seek justice. What is importance of article 15 ?

Article 15 (1) and (2)            

Article 15 (1) and (2) forbids the nation discriminating any citizen on the basis of one or many of the aspects such as race, religion, caste, gender, place of birth etc., Importance of article 15 is that  this article also says that no citizen shall be subjected to restriction on the above grounds in order to access public facilities such as shops, restaurants, hotels, place of public entertainment and others. Importance of article 15 is to keep a check that no person in India can be denied the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads, sites of public resorts that are created and managed fully or part from the state funds or have been dedicated for the use of the general public.

Article 15 (3)

Beginning with Article 15 (3), the constitution of India attempts to deal with protective discrimination. For example Importance of article 15 is that this provision makes it possible for the state reserve seats for women in local bodies.

Article 15 (4)

Importance of article 15 is that this Article enables the state to make special arrangements for promoting the interests and welfare of socially and educationally backward classes of the society such as SC and ST’s

Article 15 (5)

This article empowers the country to make reservations with regards to admissions into educational institutions which are government aided or privately run . Only minority run institutions are exempted from this rule.