Non-discrimination on the Ground of Caste

In one line

Three articles forbid caste discrimination and they forbid different things to different people, so the answer is a clause-by-clause one.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the constitutional prohibition of caste discrimination is contained in article 15(1) and (2), article 16(1) and (2), and article 29(2). Article 15(1) forbids the State to discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. Article 15(2) forbids any citizen being subjected to any disability, liability, restriction or condition on such grounds with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment, or to the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public, and it binds private persons. Article 16(1) guarantees equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and article 16(2) forbids ineligibility or discrimination on the grounds there listed. Article 29(2) forbids denial of admission to a State-maintained or aided educational institution.

Article 15, clause by clause

Clause (1). The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

Three words carry it. "The State", so it binds government and not private persons. "Citizen", so it does not protect a foreigner. And "only", which is the word every argument turns on.

What "only" does. A classification that rests wholly on one of the listed grounds is forbidden. A classification that rests on that ground TOGETHER WITH something else has to be examined: it is not automatically saved, but nor is it automatically bad. The test the courts apply is whether the listed ground is the real basis dressed up, and M.R. Balaji v. State of Mysore is the leading illustration on the caste side, where a committee had treated caste as almost the sole basis of backwardness and the classification failed.

Clause (2). No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to (a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or (b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

Clause (2) binds everybody. It is one of the very few fundamental rights that operates horizontally, and it does so because the framers knew the exclusion it was aimed at was practised by private persons on private premises. A shopkeeper who refuses to serve on the ground of caste breaches a fundamental right.