Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth is provided under:

Articles 14 to 18 together form the Right to Equality, the first category of Fundamental Rights in Part III of the Constitution.

Article 15(1) says that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. Article 15(2) says that no citizen shall, on these grounds, be denied access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment, or the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained by the State or dedicated to the use of the public. Article 15 is available only to citizens.

Article 15 also allows the State to make special provisions in favour of certain groups, which is known as protective discrimination:

Article 15(3): special provisions for women and children, such as reservation for women in local bodies.

Article 15(4): added by the 1st Amendment (1951), special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Article 15(5): added by the 93rd Amendment (2005), reservation for these classes in educational institutions, including private ones, except minority institutions.

Article 15(6): added by the 103rd Amendment (2019), up to 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in educational institutions.

The other articles of the Right to Equality are:

• Article 14: equality before the law and equal protection of the laws, for all persons.
• Article 16: equality of opportunity in public employment.
• Article 17: abolition of untouchability.
• Article 18: abolition of titles, except military and academic distinctions.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Article 14 guarantees equality before the law to all persons.
• ✗Article 16 deals with equal opportunity in matters of public employment.
• ✗Article 17 abolishes untouchability.