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CSAT 2020 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2020 · Question 66 · Reading comprehension

What is the most logical inference from the above passage?

Passage—5

In Part III of the Constitution, which assures people certain fundamental rights, Article 25 proclaims that “all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”. What people fail to notice is that this proclamation is prefixed with the words “subject to public order, morality, health and to the other provisions of this Part”, which set conditions precedent for the legal protection of religious practices of any community. The closing words of this prefatory rider in Article 25 virtually constitute a subordination clause placing other fundamental rights mentioned in Part III over and above the right to religious freedom. Among those other fundamental rights is the right to equality before law and equal protection of laws—assured at the outset and elaborated in later articles to mean, inter alia, that the State shall not deny equal protection of laws to any person or group of persons on the basis of religion alone.

CSAT 2020 · Q66

Reading comprehension Easy

What is the most logical inference from the above passage?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (b) Religious freedom under the Constitution is open to State intervention.

Article 25 grants religious freedom 'subject to public order, morality, health and to the other provisions' of Part III, which places other fundamental rights, such as equality before law, above it. So religious freedom is conditional, and the State can step in on these grounds.

  • ✗ (a) The 'subject to' rider allows State action on grounds of public order, morality, health and other fundamental rights.
  • ✓ (b) The rider sets 'conditions precedent' for protecting religious practices and subordinates religious freedom to the other rights in Part III.
  • ✗ (c) Article 25 sits in Part III, which 'assures people certain fundamental rights' — religious freedom is one of them.
  • ✗ (d) This reverses the passage, which stresses that religious practices are protected only subject to these conditions.

Remember · Look for the qualifier ('subject to', 'except', 'unless'); the inference usually follows from the limit, not the grant.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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