KSLU Solved Question Papers
Political Science (State and Political Obligations)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 3
2012 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 3 Political Science (State and Political Obligations) 2012 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2012 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2012 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2012 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all questions. (2) Figures to the right indicate marks. (3) Answers should be written either in English or in Kannada. (4) One essay type and one short note question have to be attempted, which is referred as Part (a) and Part (b).
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)What is meant by Rights ? Explain the relationship between Rights and Duties.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what is meant by rights (Holland's legal right; Laski's conditions of one's best self; Green's claim recognised for the common good); the elements of a right; what duties are; the relationship between rights and duties, point by point (correlation between persons; my right implies my duty to respect the same right in others; rights for social functions, in Laski's words "correlative with functions"; the State's rights and duties; the citizen's duties to the State; moral and legal sides); the differences between the two, as the Kannada text asks; the relationship in the Indian Constitution (Part III, Part IV and article 37, article 51A); a table; two Indian cases (Amit Sahni, Hussainara Khatoon); and a conclusion.
What is meant by rights
- Holland defined a legal right as "a capacity residing in one man of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the State, the actions of others". The State's backing is what makes it legal.
- Laski saw rights as "those conditions of social life without which no man can seek, in general, to be himself at his best".
- Green defined a right as "a power claimed and recognised as contributory to a common good".
So a right is a claim of a person, recognised by society and protected by the State. It is a claim to do or have something that he needs to develop himself.
The elements of a right
- A holder, the person who has the right.
- A content, what the right allows, such as speech or property.
- A person bound, against whom the right is held.
- Recognition, by society or by law.
- A remedy, by which the right can be enforced.
What duties are
A duty is an obligation to do or not to do something. Duties may be moral, resting on conscience, or legal, enforced by the State. They may be positive, requiring action, or negative, requiring restraint.
The relationship between rights and duties
- Every right creates a duty in others. If I have a right to life, everyone else has a duty not to kill me. A right with nobody bound to respect it would be empty.
- My right carries my duty to respect the same right in others. If I claim free speech, I must allow others to speak, even against me. Rights are equal, so the duties they create are mutual.
- Rights exist for social functions. A right must be used in a way that serves, or at least does not harm, the common good. Laski wrote: "Rights, therefore, are correlative with functions. I have them that I may make my contribution to the social end. I have no right to act unsocially."
- The State has both. The State has the right to command obedience and collect taxes. It also has the duty to protect rights and promote welfare.
- The citizen owes duties to the State. In return for the rights the State protects, the citizen must obey the law, pay taxes and defend the country when required.
- Moral and legal sides. Some rights carry only moral duties, such as an aged parent's claim to care. Others carry legal duties enforced by courts.
In short, rights and duties are two sides of the same relation. A society that stressed only rights would fall into selfishness; one that stressed only duties would fall into tyranny.
What the thinkers said
- Bentham held that rights are created by law, and that every legal right is matched by a legal duty imposed on someone else.
- Locke held that natural rights to life, liberty and property come first, and that government's duty is to protect them.
- Green held that rights exist only because society recognises them for the common good, so a person claiming rights must accept the duties of membership.
- Laski held that rights are given so that each person can contribute to the social end, and are therefore bound up with functions and duties.
All four, from different starting points, reach the same practical result: no right stands without a duty beside it.
The differences between rights and duties
The Kannada version of the question asks for the differences. They are real, though the two always go together.
- Direction. A right is a claim one holds; a duty is an obligation one owes.
- Benefit. A right benefits its holder; a duty benefits another.
- Choice. A person may often waive a right; he cannot simply waive a legal duty.
- Enforcement. A right is enforced by its holder going to court; a duty is enforced against the person bound.
The relationship in the Indian Constitution
- Part III gives fundamental rights, enforceable in court.
- Part IV states the State's duties. By article 37 the Directive Principles "shall not be enforceable by any court", but they are "fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws".
- Article 51A, added by the Forty-second Amendment in 1976, lists the fundamental duties of citizens, beginning with the duty "to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem".
So the Constitution pairs the citizen's rights with the State's duties, and the State's protection with the citizen's duties.
A worked example: a public road
Every citizen has a right to use a public road. That right creates duties: others must not block the road, and the State must keep it open and safe. The same right carries the user's own duties: to drive with care, to obey traffic rules and to let others pass. If a group blocks the road for days to press a demand, it uses one right, protest, in a way that denies another, free movement. The example shows that rights can be enjoyed by all only when each person also accepts the duties they bring.
Rights and duties at a glance
| Right | Corresponding duty |
|---|---|
| My right to life | Everyone's duty not to kill me; the State's duty to protect me |
| My freedom of speech | My duty to allow others to speak |
| My right to property | Others' duty not to trespass; my duty to pay taxes on it |
| Right | Corresponding duty |
|---|---|
| My right to vote | My duty to vote honestly and respect the result |
| The State's right to obedience | Its duty to rule by just and fair law |
Two Indian cases
Amit Sahni v. Commissioner of Police, AIR 2020 SC 4704. Protestors against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 blocked a public road in Delhi from 15 December 2019. The Supreme Court said: "Our Constitutional scheme comes with the right to protest and express dissent, but with an obligation towards certain duties." It held that public spaces "cannot be occupied in such a manner and that too indefinitely". The case pairs the right to protest with the duty to respect the rights of others.
Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, (1980) 1 SCC 98. Many under-trial prisoners in Bihar had been held for periods longer than the maximum term for their offences. They were too poor to engage a lawyer or furnish bail. The Supreme Court held that free legal service is "an essential ingredient of 'reasonable, fair and just'" procedure under article 21, read with article 39A. The case turns the prisoner's right to a fair trial into a duty of the State to provide legal aid.
Conclusion. A right is a claim recognised by society and protected by the State, needed for a person's self-development. Rights and duties are correlative. Every right creates duties in others and carries the holder's duty to respect the same right in others. And every right exists for a social function. The State and the citizen each have both. The Indian Constitution pairs them in Parts III and IV and article 51A, as Amit Sahni and Hussainara Khatoon show.
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