Origin of Fundamental Rights: First Demand, Advisory Committee and Sapru Committee

Fundamental Rights are certain secured and guaranteed rights, which are generally considered inherent in man and cannot be taken away by the state. The fundamental rights are also called the natural rights which command higher sanctity than other rights such as legal rights. The fundamental rights under the constitution can be classified under the following six groups:

• Right to equality – Article 14 to 18
• Right to freedom – Article 19 to 22
• Right against exploitation – Article 23 and 24
• Right to freedom of religion – Article 25 to 28
• Cultural and educational rights – Article 29 and 30
• Right to constitutional remedies- Article 32 to 35

Article 31 stands repealed.

First demand of fundamental rights

The first explicit demand for the fundamental rights came in the form of the “Constitution of India Bill, 1895″ which was created under guidance of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. This bill popularly called “Swaraj Bill 1895” spoke about freedom of speech, right to privacy, right of franchise etc. After that numerous drafts had been created.  In the Madras session of 1927, a resolution was adopted to draft a “Swaraj Constitution” for India. The Motilal Nehru Report of 1928 demanded inalienable fundamental rights for the people of India. It was basically inspired by the American bill of rights, which had a great impact on the thinking of Indian Leaders. The Nehru report was discarded by Simon Commission.

Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights

The Constituent Assembly had appointed an advisory committee on fundamental rights headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on January 24, 1947. This advisory committee dealt with the rights of citizens, minorities, tribal and excluded areas.

Sapru Committee recommendations on Fundamental Rights

The Sapru committee report was published in 1945. This committee recommended that the Fundamental Rights “must” be included in the Constitution of India. This committee divided fundamental rights into two parts viz. Justifiable Rights and Non-justifiable rights. The Justifiable rights were those enforceable by a court of law. These enforceable rights were incorporated in the Part III of the Constitution. The non-justifiable rights were incorporated as a directive to the state to take all measures to provide those rights to individuals without any guarantee. They were incorporated in the part IV of the constitution and were called Directive Principles of State Policy.