Citizenship, Rights, Duties and Justice
What the domain tests
This section tests legal membership, types of rights and duties, and competing meanings of justice. You should connect concepts to constitutional provisions and public debates.
Core ideas
- Citizenship: full legal membership of a state. In India, citizenship is acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, or incorporation of territory under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Rights: moral or legal claims; civil, political, social, economic and cultural. Rights are generally not absolute and carry reasonable restrictions.
- Duties: obligations correlative to rights, plus constitutional duties under Article 51A.
- Justice: distributive (fair shares), procedural (fair process), retributive (punishment), and restorative (repair harm).
Worked example
Article 21A makes elementary education a fundamental right, while Article 51A asks citizens to send children to school. The reasoning shows a right-duty relationship: the state provides schooling and citizens share responsibility for participation.
Traps
Do not say fundamental rights are unlimited. Do not treat justice as only court punishment. Do not confuse citizenship with residence; migrants may reside without being citizens.