ARTICLE 15 - PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION ON GROUNDS OF

RELIGION, RACE, CASTE, SEX OR PLACE OF BIRTH

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

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.

3. Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children.

4. Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. (This clause was added by the Constitution (1st Amendment) Act 1951,)

5. Nothing in Article 15 or in sub-clause (g) of Clause (1) of Article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally Backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Caste or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in Clause (1) of Article 30.

(Added by 93rd Constitution Amendment Act 2006 to nullify the effect of the three decisions of the Supreme Court, i.e., T.M. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka , Islamic Academy v. State of Karnataka and P.A. Inamdar v. State of Maharashtra.