ARTICLE 16: RIGHT TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
The journey from Article 14 to article 15 and then to Article 16 is a journey from general concept to special utilization.
Article 16 is for Equal opportunity in Employment under state. The issue involved reminds me the concept of Ganville Austin where he said our constitution being a Seamless Web of three strands. One of the strands is the fundamental right and other is social goal of removing inequality. Granville Austin is a great commentator on Indian Constitution. As a student of law, I find his work original and worth reading.
Very often the Constituent Assembly of India is compared with Philadelphia Convention (1787) of America and to the States General of France (1789).
But there is a marked difference that the American and French bodies were not having a strong political party support base. While in India a strong political factor had emerged during independence struggle by the time the Constituent Assembly was constituted.
Another distinction of the Indian Constituent Assembly was it was entrusted with a special burden to work for social equality. The caste system is unique in India and very deep rooted in Indian Society.
The issue of reservation was pleaded, explained, accommodated and accepted with the national spirit. Even today it is a part of mainstream discussion. One after other caste try to get in t he fold of reservation. This is more resorted after 1990 when Mandal Commission report was implemented.
I would like to refer to the commitment of constitution made in its preamble: the Solemn Resolution to secure to all its citizens: Equality of status and of opportunity.
Let us discuss the various clauses of Article 16, which is a complete code in itself. There are Six clauses in this article. First two clauses are general provisions and rest four are enabling provisions.
In this part, we will discuss Clause 1 & 2.
Article 16(1): There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
Three phrases used in this clause are of great significance: (i) Equality of opportunity: means public employment is open for all citizens, (ii)Employment or appointment means it is all inclusive of pre-employment or post employment, (iii) Any office under State. Here state is as defined in Article 12.
The expression ‘ Matters relating to employment and appointment’ must include all matters which are incidental to the employment and form parts of the terms of the conditions of the such employment .
• Principle of equal pay for equal work is also covered in section 16(1).
Clause 2 is very important as it travels beyond the employment under state. The Let us see the text of the clause 2:
(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
