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Article 13 of Indian Constitution | With Important Case Laws | Indian Polity - YouTube
Channel: Finology Legal
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Hello everybody, My name is Priya.
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In today鈥檚 video, we are going to talk about
Article 13.
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When we were making our constitution, we already
had a lot of nations as example, which adopted
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democratic and humanitarian concept.
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So our founding fathers endeavoured to formulate
something which reflects multiple things like
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rights of minority, principle of UDHR, our
struggle for independence and what not.
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Therefore, while making the constitution,
part III was discussed for 38 days.
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SO these are our rights & freedoms & this
is our state.
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Part III exists with the same objective that
our rights & freedoms should be protected
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against state鈥檚 arbitrary invasion.
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So this means that state鈥檚 actions should
be judged on the basis of their impact on
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the right & freedoms of the people.
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This entire concept is your Article 13.
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Basically Article 13 deals with 4 principles
relating to Fundamental Rights.
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First thing that you should have a clarity
about is that, since when the fundament right
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have existed.
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Fundamental Rights have existed since the
time our present constitution has existed
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i.e. 26th January, 1950.
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Fundamental rights became operative from and
on this date only.
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Article 13 (1) deals with Pre constitutional
laws.
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There were many different laws that were present
before constitution came into being, and remained
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in effect even after that.
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Article 13 provides that those laws (existing
prior to constitution) which are consistent
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with fundamental rights will remain valid.
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Now lets understand this with an example.
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There was an education Act of 1930 which had
many clauses which dealt with subjects like
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appointment of chairman, what will be the
amount of fund that will be allocated, what
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will be the age group of the children.
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Among other things, there was this one clause
which said kids from a certain caste shall
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not be admitted in the school.
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Now since 1950, this clause stands in contravention
of the fundamental rights.
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While applying clause 1 in the same example,
we can say that since this clause is against
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the fundamental rights, it would become void.
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For more clarity on this concept, lets have
a look on the two doctrines, which are related
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to Article 13 i.e.
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Doctrine of Severability & Doctrine of Eclipse.
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The first doctrine is doctrine of Severability
or separability, which means to separate.
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In simple language, you have to use a filter
for all pre constitutional laws, i.e. if it
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respects fundamental rights or not.
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All the laws which pass successfully through
this filter are valid.
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The laws which cannot pass have to be separated.
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This is your doctrine of severability.
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A very important case for doctrine of severability
is A.K.Gopalan v. state of Madras.
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In this, section 14 of the Preventive Detention
Act was challenged.
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According to section 14, if any person is
detained under this act, he cannot disclose
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grounds of detention in the court.
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So section 14 was against the fundamental
rights.
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If you apply doctrine of severability here
and filter out this Act, only section 14 of
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the act was not respecting fundamental rights.
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S according to doctrine of separation, if
we filter out Preventive Detention Act only
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section 14 is inconsistent with fundamental
right.
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So we will minus only this provision from
the act, and the remaining act shall remain
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valid.
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Simply doctrine of separation means to filter
out, to check all the acts.
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All those laws which respect fundamental rights
shall be valid.
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All those which are inconsistent with fundamental
rights shall become invalid.
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The other doctrine of Article 13 is Doctrine
of eclipse.
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Eclipse means to hide.
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Lets understand it through a case.
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Eclipse means to shadow something, to hide.
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Like there are 3 kinds of volcanos, sleeping
active & dead, section 14 of the Preventive
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Detention Act was not a dead section.
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But just a sleeping section.
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Lets check this case to further understand
how doctrine of eclipse functions.
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In case of Bhikhaji v. State of M.P., Berar
MV Act was challenged.
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There were certain sections in this Act which
empowered the state government to transfer
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the ownership of all of the motor business
to itself.
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After 1950, all those provisions became violate
of Article 19.
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So what would happen now is, we will filter
out the whole Act first, and remove all those
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sections which are inconsistent with Fundamental
rights.
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Then we will apply doctrine and eclipse, we
will say that fundamental rights will prevail
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over these sections.
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Meaning that all these sections become inoperative.
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What happened next is that Article 19 was
amended and government was authorised to monopolise
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certain businesses.
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So these sections which were inoperative because
of section 19, will now become active.
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So basically, doctrine of severability says
that all the pre existing laws shall be filtered
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out with respect to fundamental rights.
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All those laws which respect fundamental rights
shall become valid.
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Now come to the next step i.e. doctrine of
eclipse, now all those laws which cannot pass
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this filter, which were separated which are
invalid or inconsistent with fundamental rights,
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shall be shadowed by fundamental rights.
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Fundamental rights would eclipse them, hide
them.
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Meaning that they shall not cease to exist,
but only become inoperative.
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If any amendment takes place in future and
all those fundamental rights become consistent
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with fundamental rights, they will again become
active.
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So Article 13 (1) deals with pre-constitutional
law meaning the laws which existed before
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the constitution of India came into existence.
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If such laws are against fundamental rights,
they shall become invalid.
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Now the extent to which they shall remain
invalid shall be determined by application
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of 2 doctrines viz.
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Doctrine of Severability & Doctrine of Eclipse.
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Article 13 (2) talks about post constitutional
laws, meaning the laws that came into existence
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after Indian constitution did.
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The state is prohibited.
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The state cannot make such laws which are
against the fundamental rights.
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If such inconsistent laws are made, they shall
be void.
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To what extent they would be void, shall be
defined by application off these doctrines.
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There were a lot of twists in Article 13 (2)
which were settled in State of Gujarat v.
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Ambica Mills.
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In this case, a certain labour welfare fund
was challenged.
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It contained certain questions which were
against fundamental rights.
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Now it was clear that after constitution came
into effect, state did not have power to pass
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a law which is against fundamental rights.
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The question in this case was that, fundamental
rights are available to citizens.
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What about non-citizens and companies?
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In this case, the respondent was a company,
who was not granted the fundamental rights.
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In respect of that, would this act be valid
or not?
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The supreme court said because the fundamental
rights are not granted to companies, these
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sections will still, be operative for non-citizens.
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So basically 1st, state is prohibited from
making any laws which are against the fundamental
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rights.
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2nd, even if such a law is made, it shall
not be applicable on the citizens.
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But all those categories of parties which
have not been granted fundamental rights like
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companies, non-citizens, for them, that piece
of legislation is still operative.
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That is not void, that is valid.
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I hope you are clear with article 13 (1) & (2).
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13 (2) & (4), which are very important shall
be discussed in part II of the video.
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Please comment down below how did you like
the video and if you have any doubts.
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That鈥檚 it for now, see you in the next class,
bye bye!
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