Constitution of India 2022 Article 17-18

ARTICLE 17-18
Article 17. Abolition of Untouchability. — “Untouchability” is abolished and its
practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of
“Untouchability” shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

Article 35 empowers a parliament to make laws to give effect to the provisions of

Part III of constitution, so using those powers parliament enacted the Untouchability
(Offences) Act in 1955 which was amended in 1976 to make it more stringent.
Later it was renamed as ‘The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955’
Punishment under the act: A person practising Untouchability can be given
punishment of imprisonment up to 6 months and a fine of Rs.500 or both
under this act

Here ‘untouchability’ is not supposed to be interpreted literally, it refers to the

orthodox (now illegal) practise of Indian Caste System.
Devrajjah v. Padmanna (1958)

The Mysore High court said:

“It is to be noticed that that word occurs only in Article 17 and is

enclosed in inverted commas. This clearly indicates that the subject-
matter of that Article is not untouchability in its literal or grammatical
sense but the practice as it had developed historically in this country.”

PUDR V. Union of India (1982) (Asiad Project workers case)

Supreme Court held that the fundamental right under Article 17 is

available against private individuals too.

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Constitution of India 2022 Article 17-18

State of Karnataka v. Appa Balu Ingale (1993)

Supreme court under ‘The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955’ convicted
the respondents with 1 month imprisonment and Rs.100 Fine because
they restrained the complainant party from taking water from a
borewell for the reason that they were considered untouchables.

Court held that the object of Art. 17 and the act is to liberate the society
from blind and ritualistic adherence and traditional beliefs which has lost
all legal or normal base.

Article 18. Abolition of titles.

(1) No title, not being a military or academic distinction, shall be conferred by
the State.
Only Dynastic titles are abolished under Article 18, military titles (major,
colonel etc) and academic titles (Dr., Prof. etc) and other meritorious
titles are not abolished
(2) No citizen of India shall accept any title from any foreign State.
(3) No person who is not a citizen of India shall, while he holds any office of
profit or trust under the State, accept without the consent of the President any
title from any foreign State.
18(3) also applies to foreigners who are holding any office of profit or
trust under the state (India), they can’t accept any title, from a foreign
state, without consent of President
(4) No person holding any office of profit or trust under the State shall, without
the consent of the President, accept any present, emolument, or office of any
kind from or under any foreign State.
18(4) says no person (Indian/foreign both) can accept any title, present,
emolument, or office of any kind from a foreign state without consent of
president, if he/she is holding any office of profit or trust under the
state.

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 Constitution of India 2022 Article 17-18

Balaji Raghavan V. Union of India (1996)

Validity of National Awards were challenged, they were called titles by

the petitioners within the meaning of article 18, Supreme court held that
the National Awards like Bharat Ratna, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri
are not violative of the principle of equality because there should be a
system of awards like these to recognize and reward the excellence.
Court referred to Article 51-A(j) of fundamental duties which says:
‘to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity
so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and
achievement’

BUT court also emphasized on the fact that home ministry should be
vigilant and guidelines should be made in a way to give these awards so
that abuse could be prevented and the whole purpose of these awards
(awarding and acknowledging excellence) be not defeated because of
political reasons.

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