KSLU Solved Question Papers
Political Science (State and Political Obligations)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 3
2016 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 3 Political Science (State and Political Obligations) 2016 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 2016 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2016 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2016 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 · 13 questions answered
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.
Q1What is liberty ? Discuss the importance and kinds of Liberty.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what liberty is, through the classic definitions (Hobbes, Mill, Green, Laski); Isaiah Berlin's two concepts, negative and positive liberty, with his warning; liberty and licence, and liberty under law; the kinds of liberty, first Laski's three aspects (private, political, economic) and then the other kinds (natural, civil, moral, religious, national), with their Indian guarantees in a table; the importance of liberty for the person, for truth (Mill's four grounds), for democracy and for society; three Indian cases (A. K. Gopalan to Maneka Gandhi on personal liberty, Olga Tellis on economic liberty, Navtej Singh Johar on private liberty); and a conclusion.
What liberty is
Liberty is one of the oldest ideas in politics, and thinkers have defined it in different ways.
- Hobbes gave the plainest definition. A free man is one who, in the things he is able to do, "is not hindred to doe what he has a will to".
- J. S. Mill set its boundary. Power may be used over a person against his will only "to prevent harm to others".
- T. H. Green called freedom a positive power or capacity of doing or enjoying something worth doing, in common with others.
- Harold Laski saw it as an atmosphere in which people have the opportunity to be their best selves.
The first two treat liberty as the absence of restraint. The last two treat it as the presence of real opportunity. That difference runs through every later debate.
Berlin's two concepts of liberty
In a lecture of 1958, Isaiah Berlin separated two concepts by the question each answers.
Negative liberty answers the question: how large is the area in which I am left alone to do as I wish? A person is free when no other person stops him. Locke, Bentham and Mill held this view. Its weakness is that a starving, illiterate person counts as fully free, because nobody is stopping him.
Positive liberty answers a different question: who or what controls my life? A person is free when he has the means and the self-mastery to pursue his own purposes. Rousseau, Hegel and Green held this view. It supports education, health care and social security, so it is the theory behind the welfare state.
Berlin's warning. Positive liberty can be twisted. If freedom means obeying one's "higher" or rational self, a ruler may claim to know that self better than the person does. Coercion can then be called freedom. Rousseau wrote that whoever refuses to obey the general will "will be forced to be free". Berlin saw this sentence as the danger of the positive concept.
Most modern writers keep both concepts. Freedom from interference protects the person, and freedom to act gives that protection real value.
Liberty is not licence
Liberty does not mean doing whatever one likes. Unlimited freedom for each would end in the strong crushing the weak. So liberty exists under law, which limits each person in order to secure the liberty of all. The Indian Constitution follows this idea. Article 19(1) grants six freedoms, and clauses (2) to (6) allow "reasonable restrictions" on grounds such as public order, decency and the security of the State.
The kinds of liberty
A. Laski's three aspects
- Private liberty. Laski meant the freedom to choose in matters whose results mainly affect oneself. Religion was his example. It also covers one's personal life, tastes and relationships.
- Political liberty. The freedom to take an active part in the affairs of the State: to vote, to stand for office and to criticise. Laski said two conditions make it real. A person must be educated enough to state his wants clearly. And there must be "an honest and straightforward supply of news".
- Economic liberty. Laski defined it as "security and the opportunity to find reasonable significance in the earning of one's daily bread". It means freedom from want and from the fear of losing one's work.
B. The other kinds
- Natural liberty. The unlimited freedom said to exist in a state of nature, before government. In practice it was the liberty of the strong.
- Civil or personal liberty. The freedoms of a person in society, secured by law: life and person, speech, assembly, association, movement and occupation.
- Moral liberty. The freedom to act on one's reason and conscience rather than on passion. Kant and Green gave it special weight.
- Religious liberty. Freedom of conscience and worship, without compulsion by the State or by others.
- National liberty. The freedom of a people from foreign rule, and of a State from outside control.
The kinds at a glance, with their Indian guarantees
| Kind | What it secures | Indian guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| Private | Choice in self-regarding matters | Article 21 (privacy, dignity) |
| Political | Voting, office, criticism | Articles 19(1)(a), 326 |
| Economic | Work, security, fair wages | Articles 19(1)(g), 39, 41, 43 |
| Civil or personal | Life, person, movement | Articles 19 and 21 |
| Religious | Conscience and worship | Articles 25 to 28 |
| National | Freedom from foreign rule | The Preamble: a sovereign republic |
The importance of liberty
1. For the person
Liberty lets a person develop his own powers by making his own choices. A life planned by others is not fully one's own. Liberty also respects dignity, because it treats each adult as able to decide for himself. And it makes moral life possible, since a good act done under compulsion earns no credit.
2. For truth: Mill's four grounds
Mill gave four reasons why opinion must be free.
- A silenced opinion may be true. To deny this is to assume that we cannot be wrong.
- Even a false opinion usually holds part of the truth. The rest of the truth comes out only when opposing views meet.
- Even a wholly true opinion, if never challenged, is held as a prejudice, without understanding of its grounds.
- Its very meaning then weakens, and it becomes a dead formula with no effect on conduct.
Mill added that if all mankind but one held one opinion, mankind would be "no more justified in silencing that one person" than he would be in silencing mankind.
3. For democracy and the State
Free speech, a free press and free association let citizens learn what their rulers do and replace them. Without them, an election is a ritual. Liberty also allows change by argument instead of by violence, so it makes a State more stable.
4. For society
New ideas in science, art and business come from people free to try and to fail. A free society also lets many ways of life exist side by side, which suits a country as diverse as India.
Three Indian cases
A. K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, AIR 1950 SC 27, and Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, AIR 1978 SC 597. Gopalan was held under the Preventive Detention Act, 1950. The Court read "procedure established by law" in article 21 as any procedure a law prescribes, and it treated articles 19 and 21 as separate. In 1978 Maneka Gandhi's passport was impounded "in public interest" without reasons. Bhagwati J held that "personal liberty" is "of the widest amplitude". The procedure must be "right and just and fair and not arbitrary, fanciful or oppressive". Together the two cases show personal liberty growing from a narrow to a wide guarantee.
Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, (1985) 3 SCC 545. Pavement and slum dwellers in Bombay challenged the decision to evict them. The Supreme Court held that the right to life in article 21 includes the right to livelihood. "Deprive a person of his right to livelihood and you shall have deprived him of his life." It read articles 39(a) and 41 with article 21, and it directed that they not be removed until 31 October 1985. The case gives legal force to economic liberty, Laski's third aspect.
Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India, (2018) 10 SCC 1. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code punished consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex. The Supreme Court held the section unconstitutional to that extent. It found it manifestly arbitrary and an offence to dignity, privacy and the freedom to express one's identity. It said constitutional morality, not popular morality, governs. The case protects private liberty, and it echoes Mill: conduct that harms no one else is the person's own affair.
Conclusion. Liberty is the absence of restraint and also the presence of real opportunity. Berlin's negative and positive concepts capture both, with a warning against forcing people to be free. Its kinds are private, political and economic, as Laski put it, together with natural, civil, moral, religious and national liberty. Liberty matters because it develops the person, finds truth, keeps democracy honest and lets society progress. The Indian courts, from Maneka Gandhi to Olga Tellis and Navtej Singh Johar, have widened it while keeping it under reasonable law.
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