Consider the following statements regarding Right to Equality guarante...
Explanation:
The Right to Equality is guaranteed under Article 14 to 18 of the Indian Constitution. It is one of the fundamental rights provided to the citizens of India. Let us analyze the given statements regarding the Right to Equality:
1. It aims at establishing social equality:
- This statement is correct. The Right to Equality aims at ensuring social equality among all citizens of India. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
- Article 14 of the Constitution provides for equality before the law and equal protection of the law to all individuals.
- Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. It empowers the State to make special provisions for women and children.
- Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, or residence.
- Therefore, the Right to Equality ensures that all individuals are treated equally without any discrimination, thereby aiming at establishing social equality.
2. It provides for reservation of seats for SC/ST in Parliament and State Legislature:
- This statement is incorrect. The reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Parliament and State Legislatures is provided under Article 330 and Article 332 of the Indian Constitution, respectively.
- These provisions come under the Right to Representation, which is a separate concept from the Right to Equality.
- The Right to Representation ensures adequate representation of marginalized sections of society in the legislative bodies to give them a voice and address historical social injustices.
- Reservation of seats for SCs and STs is a mechanism to provide political empowerment and ensure their participation in the decision-making process.
- Therefore, the reservation of seats for SC/ST in Parliament and State Legislature is not a provision under the Right to Equality.
Hence, only statement 1 is correct, and the correct answer is option 'A' - 1 only.
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