The right to free and compulsory education for children between age group of…

Concept: Some entitlements in the Indian Constitution sit in Part III as enforceable Fundamental Rights, while others sit in Part IV as non-enforceable Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP). The Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 moved the right to elementary education out of the DPSP category and into a new Fundamental Right in Part III.

Application: The 86th Amendment (2002) inserted Article 21A, under which the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years, in such manner as the State may, by law, determine. That is exactly the entitlement described in the question, so Article 21A is the constitutional basis for it. The same amendment simultaneously replaced the original Article 45 (which had earlier carried a DPSP for free and compulsory education up to age 14) with a new directive confined to early childhood care and education for children below six years.

• Article 26 — concerns freedom to manage religious affairs (letting religious denominations establish and maintain institutions); unrelated to any right to education.

• Article 15 — prohibits State discrimination against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth; it does not itself create a right to education.

• Article 45 (after the 86th Amendment, 2002) — now directs the State toward early childhood care and education for children below six years; it no longer covers the 6-14 age group.

• Article 21A — the provision inserted by the 86th Amendment, 2002, directly mandating free and compulsory education for all children aged six to fourteen as a justiciable Fundamental Right; this is the exact entitlement the question describes.

Cross-check: The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 was enacted specifically to give statutory effect to Article 21A, confirming it as the constitutional provision underlying the free and compulsory education right for the 6-14 age group.