Common Interview Questions That Are Against the Law in India

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Did You Know Companies Can Be Sued For Asking These 9 Inappropriate Questions In An Interview?

Hiring managers use the job interview to learn as much about the candidate as possible. To do that, they ask lots of questions – including ones that may seem harmless, but are completely illegal.Recruiters with the company’s best interests in mind try to ask you for every detail about yourself that they feel would help them answer it.

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However, there are a few questions that are off limits.



In case you didn’t know this, asking questions relating to a candidate’s personal life – age, race, religion, pregnancy etc. – is illegal in technical terms, says Mental Floss. The point is to defend job-seekers against discrimination based on these factors and to help make the recruitment process standardised and more importantly, objective. Take a look at the specific questions that fall in this category.

1. “Are you married?”

Attempting to dig into a candidate’s marital status or plans is utterly unethical, even if the recruiter seems to only be trying to get to know them better. Details of familial nature are by no measure an indicator of one’s professional ability and that is how they should be treated.

2. “Do you have or plan to have children?”

Whether or not one has or plans to have children may affect their personal lives, but as long it does not reflect in their work performance, it’s a detail entirely irrelevant to the recruitment process. A company could well be considered way out of line for enquiring about a candidate’s plans in this regard.

3. “How do you plan to balance your work and family responsibilities?”




This is one question in particular that finds itself strategically inserted into most women’s interviews. Juggling the roles of wife, mother and daughter doesn’t come easy. But questioning an individual’s ability to remain professional owing to these factors, simply because she’s a woman, is not only acutely sexist, but grossly unethical.

4. “How old are you?”

Apart from confirming that a candidate is above 18, this question has no place in an interview because it is in fact against all norms of propriety to discriminate against people above 40 years of age. Asking someone more mature about their age could be a possible indicator of such age-based discrimination.

5. “Do you have any disabilities or health problems?”

If the job you’ve applied to is one that is physically demanding, the interviewer reserves the right to tell you what exactly the job requires of you and then ask whether you can meet those requirements. But any health-related questions outside of this context are considered highly inappropriate.

6. “What are your religious affiliations?”

There should be no religion-related talk in an interview. It’s as simple as that. Religion is a personal choice that you don’t have to, and shouldn’t discuss in a professional setting. Discrimination based on a candidate’s religious tendencies is gravely unethical and if faced by the question, the only appropriate response would be, “I prefer not to discuss my religion, but I can assure you that it will not interfere with my doing this job.”

7. “Have you ever been arrested?”



While an employer is entitled to asking whether or not a candidate has been convicted of a crime, their arrest record is off limits. A candidate is not obligated to discuss their arrest history with a recruiter, though employers often do their own research on candidates and at times uncover incriminating details. In such cases, being upfront about a criminal history may be a good idea to establish that it is a thing of the past.

8. “What country are you from?”

As long as a candidate is authorised to assume employment where the job is located, it should be irrelevant what country they hail from or whether English is your first language. One’s nationality has no reflection in their job performance and this question is illegal for that very reason.

9. “Do you like to drink socially?”




Unlikely to come up in an interview at all, this question has specifically been categorised as illegal in an interview setting to protect those who may answer it with, “No.” It protects the identities of recovering alcoholics, thus defending them against unethical treatment. Additionally, while one may ask whether a candidate is currently using any illegal drugs, it is against the law to ask them when they last used them.

So the next time you walk into an interview, know your rights.

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Age should not be a burden to a candidate and or the employer should not reject him for the job for age.

  2. Even if the interviewer asks the mentioned questions, one can literally do nothing about the company and interviewer. They would find a different excuse to not take take the interviewee if one would not answer their questions appropriately. Its the monopoly the companies play by asking in-appropiate questions and the candidate is left with no other option especially females.

  3. 1. “Are you married?”
    Ans:Yes
    2. “Do you have or plan to have children?”
    Ans:I have 1 children
    3. “How do you plan to balance your work and family responsibilities?”
    Ans:Yes
    4. “How old are you?”
    Ans:30
    5. “Do you have any disabilities or health problems?”
    Ans:No
    6. “What are your religious affiliations?”
    Ans:Muslim
    7. “Have you ever been arrested?”
    Ans:No
    8. “What country are you from?”
    Ans:India
    9. “Do you like to drink socially?”
    Ans:No

    • but wrong my dear….as u answered the question….
      3. “How do you plan to balance your work and family responsibilities?”
      Ans:Yes
      They want to know the reasons, of balancing b/w your job and your family….

  4. Most of the interviewers ask these questions most of them asked me about marriage; age ; health ; work and family life balance etc etc they never ask about your experience ability capability strengths how you are what you can do etc etc.. nothing they ask always irrelevant questions if this is true and strong in law then I can sue many companies

  5. It happens generally, When an individual is asked such questions they either answer or when they refuse to answer they get rejected giving any lame reason or without any reason. An interviewee will not think of filing a case not because the process is lengthy but because the company has best of the lawyers and has ability to play the game. But for an individual who went for an interview most of the time are not aware of such like humiliation or these actions or questions are also known as humiliation. How it is important for an individual to know certain rights that they possess, companies should also be warned for their such like activities. May be the best and user friendly way to highlight their humiliation is sharing the experience on social media platform. It is much convenient and easy to reach and also cost effective. We all should come together to cut the crap of corporate world. May be this link will be useful to deal with in office humiliation if any.

  6. 1. Are you married?
    Ans : No
    2.Do you have plan to have children?
    Ans : No
    3. How do you plan to balance your work and family responsibilities?
    Ans : Yes
    4. How old are you?
    Ans : 32
    5. Do you have disabilities or health problems?
    Ans: No
    6. What you religion affiliation?
    Ans : Hindu
    7. Have you been arrested?
    Ans : No
    8. What country are you from?
    Ans : India
    9.Do you like to drink socially?
    Ans : No

  7. Once a Female Hr ask me that tpe of one question do you have a gf or not and a i ask her is it a part to interview of itz job related then she ask m so sory thats none of them just want to know about you thats why i ask that ………..the result of interview is Rejected after all rounds of interview thats last round……

  8. This article is Crap. Yes some of the questions are unethical but nothing is against the law

  9. I was attracted by the word “Illegal” in the title. I hoped to see some case law. But the article goes on to use words “unethical” and “inappropriate”. It is highly inappropriate and unethical to say some thing is illegal and then move to ethics. It is not illegal, though!

  10. IN A NUTSHELL…JOB SEEKERS HAVE NO OPTION ELSE TO APPEAR IN ALL RELEVANT INTERVIEWS, IRRESPECTIVE OF CARING QUESTIONNAIRE.
    I HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL RECRUITING AND EDUCATIONAL CONSULATCY….AND WANNA TO SUGGEST ALL JOB SEEKERS, WORK HARD UPON YOUR SELVELVES …JOB, BUCKS WILL FOLLOW YOU.
    I RARELY FOUND COMPETENT GUY, ONLY PAPER EDUCATION CAN NOT DO ANYTHING.

    DR. KASHIF QURESHI
    MCA,MBA,MTECH,PhD-(COMPUTER SC.)
    SRK1521@GMAIL.COM

    • in india most of the international jobs carry enormmous illegal service charges,wothout a proper bill.in india many HRM’s are taking money from the candidates.

  11. Jiski lathi uski bhes and job sickers dose not have choices either than to face ragging in its first appearance

  12. All questions are relevant from a recruiter perspective:
    1. Are you married?
    Relevance: Married people generally leave offce at 6.00 pm sharp. hence if a job requires extended hours probably not a good idea to hire a married person.
    2.Do you have plan to have children?
    Relevance : Specially for ladies in India, after child’s birth they don’t bother about work at all and go on paid leave, you would not like to pay someone for doing nothing, in case the lady is employed by a company for long, it is company’s liability to give her leave for it.
    3. How do you plan to balance your work and family responsibilities?
    Relevance: it’s the company’s responsibility to provide a work-life balance to the employee.
    4. How old are you?
    Relevance: knowing age is related to multiple things, companies want young blood to perform with full pace in junior level jobs, and the person with more age (might be related to a number of years of exp) will be assigned job in management to bring experience in company matters.
    5. Do you have disabilities or health problems?
    Relevance: Company provides health insurance cover and invests a lot to groom an employee, why a company will hire a person with health problems, knowing the fact that person will take frequent sick leaves and enjoy health program while he/she has not done anything for the company.
    6. What you religion affiliation?
    Relevance: It might not matter, but I have seen some employees go for namaaz in work hours and leaving early on Friday, taking off or no productivity in Navratri, Ramdaan etc.
    7. Have you been arrested?
    Relevance: Obviously, it’s a relevant question, nobody wants to hire a convicted criminal. Later once the person is associated to a company, can bring bad name for enterprise also. for ex – News that employee of X company did a robbery.
    8. What country are you from?
    Relevance: Behavioral and cultural differences are big, when people say “Send email soon”, in Canada “Please bring file soon as per your convenience” -for another Indian it wont be a big deal but probably for Canadian its offensive.
    9.Do you like to drink socially?
    Relevance: Multiple companies are adopting no alcohol policy in their company functions, knowing the fact, some employees drink irresponsibly and bring chaos.
    Remember the fact all these things in behavior can be very big for performing a job and business is not charity to pay for you, but pay for the work you do for it.

    • Yes I do agree with the porvided explanation. But calling for interview and asking these questions it would be better to include these questions in the CV or companies wanted profile itself so that it will save the time money from both sides if corporate world is really sincer in their approach of selection no body is 100 percent perfect in all respects even th e interview takers are also have some drawbacks in their personal and professional life

  13. Object of the Exercise is Opaque
    Seems exercise relates to walk-in-Interviews, where in back-up of candidate(s) is just unknown
    There is no expression of any qualification, abilitiy, interest & aptitute etc…at all in the question box.
    In the present world of sociological setup a balanced system of recruitment is to persist
    Yes, question of Nationality, Crimes committed/arrested, evils of dri nking etc. are ever unavoidable.
    ANY WAY, QUALITY OF MANY ANSWERS AND ENGLISH THEREIN MAY NOT VERY MUCH GO INFAVOUR OF THE CANDIDATE(S) CONCERNED please

  14. If these questions are against the law in India, the article shouldvstate tbose provisions of law that these questions are against.

  15. Very few questions 1-9 are relevant for interview. Most of answer are in CV apart from .

    HR team has his own ways to assess ? Can be clear diplomatically not hurting anyone.

    Thanks.

    anil sehgal

  16. All companies want to do a KYC on prospective Employees. There is nothibng wrong or illegal about knowing some of these details .
    If you do not wish to answer these questions forego the opportunity of an employment with that employer. If you are going to give a notice or file a case on such interviewers, the word in the field will go quickly and all your prospects will dry up
    You have the freedom to choose

  17. If the recruiter can be sued for asking these so called illegal questions, then all those Government as well as Private Companies should be sued for asking these questions. As the recruiting Company put the condition of Age Limit at first in their Advertisement.
    Besides Marital Status, and all other illegal questions remains in their Printed Forms or Verbal questionnaire kept with themselves.
    Now, The question arises that if the recruiting agency or company is having not any legal right to ask these questions, then why do they ask these questions ? And above all why not any legal action be taken against those culprits,who are involved in such illegal practices .
    At last Where should the sufferer go for Justice ?

  18. Answers are already given in the Resume or the Form already filled up by the candidate. If interviewer wants to
    confirm from his answer face-to-face —– its just time pass.

    Question should be asked from related job-fields only.

  19. always ask this stupid questions present the thining and presence of mind in tension

  20. How to get my old dues from my company, like Salary, PF, Incentives and royalties for my scientific inventions?

  21. What are the legal procedures and IPC acts? For recovering my Royalty and incentives for my intellectual contribution to the organisation?

  22. Iam lower coming some way
    Beautiful question s asking any ok
    What do you think lower play game
    No any doing this game
    I didn’t want money I am poor you no all of you why are you killing me who is that VIP I face to face discuss tel me Iam waiting lower I re-act any bady no’s
    I savings family s India
    Lower frauding money scam what is this all of u Indian are not .
    In lower case is simple just wait and see ..lower what to do better do.
    VIP scaming
    Lower killing in India any bady agent scaming lower name lower proofs what is this India developing ok ………….so what happens lower where are place any bady ask no any see no
    Very lw… Seeing so what a technical program me then I start now Iam loosing Indian is loosing the case Iam come true

  23. If you apply Job web sites like Naukri, Monister 99% they asked this questions. But No one was given me the Job after taking all this data..90% of HR run through Mafia to kill big companies operations or secrets of Business process.

  24. Recently I’m giving so many interview in some organisation but they checked with comm and grammar but I noticed that some are few organization is asking indirect question also which person not able to get find out and they don’t know

Comments are closed.