article 21A OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION, Essays (university) of Law

Download article 21A OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION and more Essays (university) Law in PDF only on Docsity! 4.3 RIGHT TO EDUCATION VIOLATED Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world - Nelson Mandela 1.Children are not only the future citizens but also the future of the earth. Elders in general, and parents and teachers in particular, owe a responsibility for taking care of the well-being and welfare of the children. The world shall be a better or worse place to live according to how we treat the children today. Education is an investment made by the nation in its children for harvesting a future crop of responsible adults productive of a well functioning Society.1In Osmania University Teachers' Assn. v. State of A.P. & Anr2, wherein it has been held as under"....Democracy depends for its very life on a high standard of general, vocational and professional education. Dissemination of learning with search for new knowledge with discipline all round must be maintained at all costs." 2.Education means knowledge and Knowledge itself is power.' As rightly observed by Johan Adams, 'the preservation of means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country"3 An individual cannot be assured of human dignity unless his personality is developed and the only way to do that is to educate him. This is why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 emphasises "Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality"4. 3. . In Maharshi Mahesh Yogi Vedic Vishwavidyalaya v State Of M.P. & Ors 5The objectives flowing from the preamble cannot be achieved and shall remain on paper unless the people in this country are educated. The three pronged justice promised by the preamble is only an illusion to the teaming-million who are illiterate. It is only is the education which equips a citizen to participate in achieving the objectives enshrined in the preamble. The preamble further assures the dignity of the individual. The Constitution seeks to achieve this object by guaranteeing fundamental rights to each individual which he can enforce through court of law if necessary. The directive principles in Part IV of the Constitution are also with the same objective. The dignity of man is inviolable. It is the duty of the State to respect and protect the same. It is primarilty the education which brings-forth the dignity of a man 4. In the landmark case of Mohini Jain V State of Karnataka and others6 Justice Kuldip Singh held that “Right to life is the compendious expression for all those rights which the Courts must enforce because they are basic to the dignified enjoyment of life. It extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue. The right to education flows 1 Rohit Singhal & Ors. v. Principal, Jawahar N. Vidyalaya & Ors., AIR 2003 SC 2088 2 ., AIR 1987 SC 2034 3 http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/1925/Right-to-Education.html 4 State of Orissa v. Mamta Mohanty, (2011) 3 SCC 436 5 AIR 2015 SC 326 6 (1992) 3 SCC 666 directly from right to life. The right to life under Article 21 and the dignity of an individual cannot be assured unless it is accompanied by the right to education. The State Government is under an obligation to make endeavour to provide educational facilities at all levels to its citizens.” 5.The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school which satisfies certain essential norms and standards. 6. In a catena of cases7 the Supreme Court has held that that fundamental rights are means to achieve the goal set forth in Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy) and that fundamental rights must be construed in the light of the Directive Principles. So far as the right to education is concerned, there are several articles in Part IV which expressly speak of it. Article 41 says that the "State shall within the limits of its economic capacity and development make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of underserved want.' Article 45 says that "the State shau endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.' Article 46 commands that 'the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation." 7.South African Constitution Bench in Governing Body of the Juma Musjid Primary School v. Minister for Education 8the Court held that the primary positive obligation to provide the right to education resides on the Government.In Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India, 9 it was held that a child who is denied right to access education is not only deprived of his right to live with dignity, he is also deprived of his right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1)(a). 8. Justice P.V Asha of Kerala high court held in the landmark case Faheema shirin v. state of Kerala &others10 that right to have access to Internet becomes the part of right to education as well as right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In another 7 8 [[2011] ZACC 13 9 (2012) 6 SCC 1 10 2019(2) KHC 220