SC/0333/1993
This article is authored by Gauri Bansal and edited by Mr. Anoop Prakash Awasthi, AOR and Adv. Prapti Singh.
Fact
The case involved a challenge by certain private professional educational facilities to the constitutionality of State laws regulating capitation fees charged by such institutions,
Questions of law
- Whether the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 includes the right to education or not?
- Whether there is a fundamental right to education for a professional degree that flows from Article 21?
Held
The Supreme Court held that the right to basic education is implied by the fundamental right to life (Article 21) when read in conjunction with the directive principle on education (Article 41). The Court held that the parameters of the right must be understood in the context of the Directive Principles of State Policy, including Article 45 which provides that the State is to endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children under the age of 14.
The Court ruled that there is no fundamental right to education for a professional degree that flows from Article 21. It held, however, that the passage of 44 years since the enactment of the Constitution had effectively converted the non-justiciable right to education of children under 14 into one enforceable under the law. It said The right to free education is available only to children until they complete the age of 14 years. Thereafter, the obligation of the State to provide education is subject to the limits of its economic capacity and development.”
In addition, the Court said that, in order to treat a right as a fundamental right, it is not necessary that it should be expressly stated as one in Part III of the Constitution: “the provisions of Part III and Part IV are supplementary and complementary to each other”. The Court rejected that the rights reflected in the provisions of Part III (fundamental rights) are superior to the moral claims and aspirations reflected in the provisions of Part IV (directive principles)
Significance
The State responded to this declaration nine years later by inserting through the Eighty- Sixth amendment to Constitution, Article 21- A which provides for the fundamental right to education for children between the ages of six and fourteen.
