Right to Life and Personal Liberty — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. Article 21 provides that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to:

   • Procedure established by law (correct answer)
   • The wishes of the majority
   • Executive discretion alone
   • Religious custom

   Explanation. Article 21's exact text is: 'No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.'

2. Before Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978), the phrase 'procedure established by law' in Article 21 was interpreted narrowly (in A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, 1950) to mean:

   • Any procedure enacted by a validly passed law was sufficient, regardless of its fairness, and Article 21 was read in isolation from Article 14/19 (correct answer)
   • The procedure must always involve a jury trial
   • It required international law approval
   • It applied only to preventive detention

   Explanation. A.K. Gopalan held that 'procedure established by law' meant only that some procedure enacted by the legislature was followed, without any requirement that the procedure itself be fair or reasonable, and treated Articles 14, 19, and 21 as mutually exclusive.

3. Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978) overturned this narrow view and held that the procedure under Article 21 must be:

   • 'Right, just and fair,' not arbitrary, fanciful or oppressive — effectively linking Articles 14, 19 and 21 into a 'golden triangle' (correct answer)
   • Approved by the United Nations
   • Decided solely by the executive without judicial oversight
   • Applicable only to citizens above 21 years

   Explanation. Maneka Gandhi held that any procedure depriving a person of life or personal liberty must satisfy the tests of Articles 14 and 19 as well — it must be fair, just, and reasonable, not arbitrary — establishing the interlinked 'golden triangle' of Articles 14, 19 and 21.

4. In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), a nine-judge bench held that the right to privacy is:

   • Not protected under the Constitution at all
   • A fundamental right protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, and of the other freedoms in Part III (correct answer)
   • Available only to public figures
   • Only a statutory right under the IT Act

   Explanation. Puttaswamy unanimously held privacy to be a fundamental right, intrinsic to Article 21's guarantee of life and personal liberty and to the freedoms guaranteed under Part III generally, overruling earlier decisions (M.P. Sharma, Kharak Singh) to the extent they held otherwise.

5. Article 21's guarantee has, through judicial interpretation, been expanded to include rights such as:

   • The right to livelihood, speedy trial, legal aid, a clean environment, and shelter, among others (correct answer)
   • Only the literal right not to be executed
   • The right to a government job
   • The right to free foreign travel with no restriction

   Explanation. Through a long line of cases (e.g. Olga Tellis on livelihood, Hussainara Khatoon on speedy trial and legal aid, and various environmental cases), courts have read 'life' in Article 21 expansively to mean a life of dignity, not mere animal existence, encompassing many derivative rights.

6. 'Personal liberty' under Article 21 has been held to mean:

   • Only freedom from physical arrest or detention, nothing more
   • A broad, residual right covering the variety of rights that go to constitute personal liberty, not confined to the specific freedoms already listed in Article 19 (correct answer)
   • Only the freedom to vote
   • Only the freedom of religion

   Explanation. Following Kharak Singh v. State of U.P. and later cases, 'personal liberty' has been given the widest possible interpretation, covering a variety of rights constituting personal liberty of a person, not merely the specific freedoms already enumerated under Article 19.

7. Which statement best captures the relationship between Article 21 and Articles 14 and 19 after Maneka Gandhi?

   • They operate in completely separate, mutually exclusive compartments as before Maneka Gandhi
   • They are interlinked — a law depriving personal liberty must also satisfy the reasonableness/non-arbitrariness standards of Articles 14 and 19 (correct answer)
   • Article 21 has been repealed and replaced by Articles 14 and 19
   • Only Article 21 matters; Articles 14 and 19 are irrelevant to personal liberty cases

   Explanation. Post-Maneka Gandhi, courts test any State action depriving personal liberty against Article 21's procedural fairness requirement AND against Articles 14 (non-arbitrariness) and 19 (where relevant), rejecting the earlier 'exclusivity' approach of A.K. Gopalan.

8. Article 21 differs from Article 22 in that:

   • Article 21 is a broad, general guarantee against deprivation of life/personal liberty, while Article 22 provides specific, detailed procedural safeguards for persons who are arrested or detained (correct answer)
   • Article 21 applies only to preventive detention
   • Article 22 has no connection to personal liberty at all
   • They are identical in scope and wording

   Explanation. Article 21 lays down the broad procedural-fairness requirement for any deprivation of life or personal liberty; Article 22 supplies the specific, detailed safeguards (right to be informed of grounds, right to consult a lawyer, production before a magistrate within 24 hours, and the separate preventive-detention regime) that give Article 21 concrete content in the arrest/detention context.

9. Which case held that every doctor must give emergency medical aid to an injured person as part of Article 21?

   • Parmanand Katara v. Union of India (1989) (correct answer)
   • A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras
   • Kharak Singh v. State of U.P.
   • Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras

   Explanation. Parmanand Katara (1989) held that the duty to preserve life requires emergency medical aid.