Begar Constitution of India, Art. 23 The expression “forced labour” seems to be collocated with the word “beggar”. The word “beggar” is of Indian origin and has, in the due course of time gained entry into the English vocabulary. That word is understood to be the labour or service which a person is forced to give without receiving any remuneration for it. It was so held by a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in S. Vasudevan v. S.D. Mital, AIR 1962 Bom 53 : 63 Bom LR 774 and that was approved by the Supreme Court in People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, (1982) 3 SCC 235 : 1982 SCC (L&S) 275 : AIR 1982 SC 1473. Putting a prisoner to hard labour while he is undergoing a sentence of rigorous imprisonment awarded to him by a Court of competent jurisdiction cannot be equated with “beggar” or “other similar forms of forced labour” and there is no violation of clause (1) of Article 23 of the Constitution. Clause (2) of Article 23 has no application in such a case. (State of Gujarat v. Hon’ble High Court of Gujarat, (1998) 7 SCC 393 (404,435)