Rough Draft of Constitutional law

Aamir Harun Khan

Roll. No- 18156

Group No.- 24

Topic- Right to Education under article 21A

Subtopic- Constitutionality and State’s responsibility pertaining to Art. 21A.

Research Question- Whether the State is acting in accordance with Art. 21 and should there an
age limit factor in Art. 21A.

Submitted to- Dr. Lakhwinder Singh

-Statement of Problem-

Education is one of the most important pillars in society building, Education as a tool is the most
potent mechanism for the advancement of the human beings. But in a country like India which
has only 74% of literacy rate which is also uneven region to region, a lot of people are illiterate.
Illiteracy not only gives rise to unemployment but also to crime. The only way to curb this problem
completely is to provide education from the basic level i.e. from childhood. Supreme court has
held right to education as a fundamental right and thus the Article 21 A was inserted in constitution
and further right to education was passed in 2009. Article 21A spells out the responsibility of the
state to extent of providing free and compulsory education to all children from the age 6-14 yrs.
It vests the discretion with the state to decide the manner and means of achieving the same which
is achieved in form of reservation in public and private schools or creating new schools which
charge less or no fee.

Earlier it was conflict between the private institutes and the government to reserve seats to provide
free and compulsory education. The Supreme Court in Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan
v. Union of India, upheld the constitutionality of the right to education and upheld the reservation.
Total compliance with Article 21A means that there is necessity of providing good quality
education to all children aged six to fourteen regularly attend schools, Ashoka Kumar Thakur v.
Union of India.

The research deals with the constitutionality and State’s responsibility in providing the education
to children to curb the all the problems which arise due to illiteracy in India.
 -Research Question-

The project aims to analyse whether the State is acting in accordance in protecting rights of
children pertaining to article 21A and should there be an age factor under this article? Or is it
necessary to change the age limit of 6-14 yrs. or to remove it completely. Scrutinizing the Article
21A and Right to education act 2009 there are still lot of amendments to be made to it keeping in
view all the aspects of the society.

Considering the early childhood care and development is an integral part of the overall education
and well-being of a child, the age limit chosen is crucial as it determines the level of education in
normal circumstances till the completion of a specific education level or a class which is from 6 to
14 yrs. The convention on the rights of the child has been ratified by India, which obligates the
country to provide education to all children up to the age of 18 years. In the light of the above
facts, it’s strongly recommended that the upper age limit of the fundamental rights be revised
as…up to the age of 18 years or completion of 10th standard, whichever is earlier or the age limit
can be waived off completely. If we are providing education to children then it should be free
irrespective of any age limit and it should not be based upon social or cultural background of the
children. As the apex court in the Shyam Sundar Case has also held that “right of a child should be
not be restricted only to free and compulsory education, but should be extended to have quality
education without any discrimination on the ground of their economic, social and cultural
background.

The question hence arises that is the state is doing enough to promote and protect the rights of
free education to children and age limit under article 21A and this project will discuss it in detail.
From the research carried on in this matter would be in pursuit of finding possible solution for
these flaws that do exist and hence one of the hypotheses of the above study would be that the age
limit factor in article 21A does not hold any virtue.

Thus, the study would confine itself to the above questions raised and by taking the above
hypothesis in consideration. Research would be backed by landmark judgments and references
from research papers and articles by various jurists in order to prove the above undertaken
hypothesis.
 -Bibliography-

Books Referred:

1. Jain, Mahabir Prashad., et al. M.P. Jain Indian Constitutional Law: with Constitutional Documents.
5th ed., LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur, 2010.
2. Basu, Durga Das. Introduction to the Constitution of India. 22nd ed., LexisNexis, 2018.
3. Rao, Mamta. Constitutional Law. Eastern Book Company, 2013.
4. Shukla, V. N. The Constitution of India (with a Commentary Critical and Explanatory). Eastern
Book Co., 1950.

Cases Referred:

1. Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v. Union of India, (2014) 8 S.C.C. 1.

2. Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India, (2012) 6 S.C.C. 102.
3. Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India, (2008) 6 S.C.C. 1.
4. State of Tamil Nadu v. K. Shyam Sundar, (2011) 8 S.C.C. 737.
5. Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka, (1992) 2 S.C.C. 666.

Articles Referred:

1. Kanchi. “Right To Education: Its Accessibility, Practicability and Flaws.” Academike,

Lawctopus, 30 Jan. 2015, www.lawctopus.com/academike/right-to-education-
flaws/#_ednref7.
2. Ankit Kaushik. “Rights of Juvenile in India.” Academike, 13 Feb. 2019,
www.lawctopus.com/academike/rights-juvenile-india/.
3. Sanjay Sandhu. “Fundamental Right to Education in India: An Overview.” Global Journal
of Interdisciplinary Sciences, vol. 3, no. 92, 2014, www.longdom.org/articles/fundamental-
right-to-education-in-india-an-overview.pdf.

Statues and Articles Referred:

1. Constitution of India 1949.

2. Article 21A, Article 21, Article 45, Article 15
3. Right to Education Act, 2009.