Article 29 — Protection of Interests of Minorities

(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.

(2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Source: Constitution of India, as published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Article 29 was intended primarily to protect linguistic minorities — Tamils in the north, Urdu speakers in the south — and religious minorities. Clause (2) was the provision struck down by the Supreme Court in State of Madras v. Champakam Dorairajan (1951), leading to the First Constitutional Amendment which inserted Article 15(4) to permit OBC reservations. The interaction between Article 29(2) and Article 30 (minority educational institutions) has been extensively litigated, particularly on the question of how much the state can regulate minority-run aided schools.

• Article 15
• Article 30
• Article 350A

Last reviewed: 1 July 2026