RAS question
Under Article 35 of the Indian Constitution, the power to make laws for giving effect to certain Fundamental Rights (such as prescribing punishment for untouchability) is vested in:
Correct answer: (D) Parliament only (not State Legislatures).
Under Article 35 of the Constitution of India, Parliament alone, and not State Legislatures, has the power to make laws giving effect to the specified Fundamental Rights, including laws prescribing punishment for offences under Part III.
Explanation
Article 35 is a legislative-competence provision inside Part III. It opens with a non-obstante clause and then says that Parliament shall have, and the Legislature of a State shall not have, power to make laws on the listed matters. The clause also covers laws prescribing punishment for acts declared to be offences under Part III. That is why offences linked to Fundamental Rights, such as the practice of untouchability under Article 17 and contraventions of Article 23 on traffic in human beings and forced labour, are not left to equal State-level law-making competence. The correct choice is therefore Parliament only, because Article 35 deliberately centralises this law-making power.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) State Legislatures only is wrong because Article 35 expressly says the Legislature of a State shall not have this power.
- (B) The President through ordinances only is wrong because Article 35 vests the law-making power in Parliament, not exclusively in presidential ordinances.
- (C) Both Parliament and State Legislatures equally is wrong because the Article creates exclusive parliamentary competence rather than shared competence.
Concept
This tests Fundamental Rights enforcement and legislative competence under Part III. RAS repeats such provisions because they connect rights, offences and which institution can make the implementing law.