Fundamental Rights, DPSP & Duties

Answer: (a) 1 only

Parliament adds laws to the Ninth Schedule through constitutional amendments, and Article 31B shields them from challenge for violating Fundamental Rights. But the shield is not absolute: laws added on or after 24 April 1973 (the Kesavananda Bharati judgment) can be tested against the basic structure.

• ✓ 1. The Ninth Schedule was created by the First Amendment (1951), and Parliament has added many Acts to it by later constitutional amendments.
• ✗ 2. Following Waman Rao (1981) and I.R. Coelho (2007), courts can review a law inserted into the Ninth Schedule after 24 April 1973 if it damages the basic structure of the Constitution.

Remember · Ninth Schedule (Art. 31B, First Amendment 1951) protects listed laws from Part III challenges, but post-24 April 1973 additions remain open to basic-structure review (I.R. Coelho, 2007).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) If there are no laws, there is no liberty.

Law and liberty go together: without laws, nobody's freedom is protected from the coercion of others, so there is no real liberty. Law restrains harmful acts and thereby secures the freedom of everyone.

• ✓ (b) Political theory treats law as a support for freedom: legal restraints are needed so that one group cannot coercively impose its views on another, and law protects each person's freedom.
• ✗ (a) This treats law as the enemy of liberty. Only unnecessary or unjustified constraints reduce freedom; the test is whether a restriction is necessary and justified, not how many laws exist.
• ✗ (c) Laws being made by the people is a feature of democratic government and positive liberty, but it does not describe the basic relationship between law and liberty.

Remember · Law and liberty are not opposites: laws protect liberty. Where there is no law, the strong dominate and there is no liberty for others.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Political Theory, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Article 21 and the freedoms guaranteed in Part III

In Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (24 August 2017), a nine-judge Supreme Court bench held privacy to be a Fundamental Right. It flows from Article 21, which protects life and personal liberty, and from the freedoms in Part III taken together. Only option (c) names both.

• ✓ (c) Article 21 says no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except by procedure established by law. In Puttaswamy the Court read privacy into this Article and into the wider Part III freedoms.
• ✗ (a) Article 14 is equality before law, and the 42nd Amendment (1976) has no provision on privacy; neither is the source of the right.
• ✗ (b) Article 17 abolishes untouchability, and Directive Principles in Part IV are not enforceable rights; privacy was held to be a Fundamental Right.
• ✗ (d) Article 24 bars employment of children in factories and similar hazardous work; the 44th Amendment (1978) does not create the right to privacy.

Remember · Privacy is a Fundamental Right, grounded in Article 21 and the Part III freedoms (Puttaswamy, 2017, nine judges).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error