Which one of the following statements is correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (c) Rights are claims of the citizens against the State.
A right is a justified claim that a person makes, and it binds the State: it limits what the State may do and obliges it to act in certain ways. So rights are claims of citizens on the State, not favours granted to some.
- ✓ (c) Political theory defines a right as an entitlement or justified claim, and rights place obligations and limits on the authority of the State.
- ✗ (b) A constitution recognises rights and makes them enforceable, but that legal endorsement is not what makes them rights; and they are entitlements, not privileges.
- ✗ (d) Rights belong equally to all; even minority rights are meant to secure equal respect, not special privileges for a few.
Remember · Right = justified claim of the individual that the State must respect and help secure. Rights limit State power; they are not privileges.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 5 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 11 · Political Theory, Chapter 5 “A right is essentially an entitlement or a justified claim. It denotes what we are entitled to as citizens, as individuals and as human beings.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Political Theory, Chapter 5 “Rights not only place obligations upon the state to act in a certain way — for instance, to ensure sustainable development — but they also place obligations upon each of us.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Political Theory, Chapter 5 “The legal endorsement certainly gives our rights a special status in society but it is not the basis on which rights are claimed.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·