PART III FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS · Right to Freedom

Article 21A: Right to education

¹[The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.]

Footnotes in the official text

1.Ins. by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, s. 2 (w.e.f. 1-4-2010).

Leading cases

Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v. Union of India (2014)Article 15(5) and Article 21A do not violate the basic structure and are valid; the Right to Education Act, 2009 is valid against private unaided schools but cannot apply to minority schools, aided or unaided.
Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India (2012)The majority upheld the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, including the 25% admission requirement in Section 12(1)(c), for unaided non-minority schools, but held that the Act does not apply to unaided minority schools.

Questions on this article

13 questions in 27 of our papers cite Article 21A. Try these from the free papers:

1. Article 45, as substituted by the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002, directs the State to endeavour to provide:
2. In April 2026 the Supreme Court held that private unaided neighbourhood schools must admit children allotted by the State Government under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, and that denying such admission violates which provision?
3. Consider the following statements about the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002: 1. It inserted Article 21A. 2. It substituted Article 45, which now deals with early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years. 3. It added clause (k) to Article 51A. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

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