Which one of the following does not fall within the purview of Article 21 of the Constitution?

Answer: D. Article 21 protects life and personal liberty and bars deprivation of either except according to procedure established by law. The courts have read several socio-economic rights into it, and the other three options are among them.

• A is within Article 21. In Parmanand Katara (1989) the Supreme Court held that emergency medical aid to an injured person is part of the right to life, and the state cannot delay treatment.
• B is within Article 21. Vishaka (1997) read the right to life with dignity to cover protection from sexual harassment at the workplace, and laid down guidelines until legislation came.
• C is within Article 21. Subhash Kumar (1991) recognised the right to clean water and air as part of life under Article 21.
• D is the odd one out. Bachan Singh (1980) upheld the death penalty as constitutional under the rarest-of-rare doctrine. Article 21 itself permits life to be taken by a fair procedure, so capital punishment is an exception the article allows rather than a protection it extends.

Core concept: judicial expansion of Article 21 after Maneka Gandhi (1978), which made the procedure fair, just and reasonable. Mains angle: how activism widened the right to life and where its limits lie. The Law Commission's 262nd Report (2015) recommended abolishing the death penalty for ordinary crimes, so the debate is live.

Trap: Aspirants reject B or C because the courts' expansion of Article 21 is recent. Those were judicial readings, and they are firmly settled.