CONSTITUTION AND
HUMAN RIGHTS
PART II
Directive Principles of State Policy
● They are a set of guidelines or principle
● Fundamental in the governance of a country.
● Aims to establish a “welfare state” which is envisaged in the preamble to the
Constitution.
● Many of the provisions corresponds to the Provisions of ICESCR. As a party to the
ICESCR, the Indian legislature has enacted laws giving effect to some of the treaty
obligations and these laws are in turn enforceable in and by the courts as laid down
in various judgments.
● Basu notes that the DPSP, “as embodied in part IV of the Constitution [of India] are
directions given to the State to guide the establishment of an economic and social
democracy, as proposed by the Preamble”. They are standards of achievement
which guides all government organs in running their business
Keshavananda Bharti v. State of Kerala (1973) 4 SCC 225
It was held that fundamental right themselves have no fixed content; most of them
are empty vessels into which each generation must pour its content in the light of
its experience. Restrictions abridgements, curtailments and even abrogation of
these rights in circumstances not visualized by the constitution makers might
become necessary; their claim to supremacy or priority is liable to be borne at
particular stages in the history of the nation by the moral claims embodied in Part
IV
DPSPs and UDHR
DPSPs: Socio-Economic Rights
These principles for Socio-Economic rights and welfare have been provided in Articles
38, 39, 39A, 41 and 42.
Article 38 provides that “The state shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by
protecting, as effectively as it may, a social order in which justice, social-economic
and political shall inform all the institutions of the national life. It also directs the state
to eliminate inequalities in income, status, and opportunity not only among individuals
but also among groups of people”.
Article 39A provides that the State shall secure that the operation of the legal system
promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free
legal aid, so that justice is not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other
disabilities.
DPSPs: Socio-Economic Rights
Article 41 states that within the limits of its resources the state will make provision for the right to
work, to education, and to public assistance to the unemployed, sick, old and disabled; secure just
and humane conditions of work and maternity relief; and decent living, wage; raise level of education,
standard of living and public health, early childhood care and education of children below the age of
six.
The Directive Principles also direct the State to adopt and implement policies for basic education,
uniform civil code, independence of judiciary, protection of heritage and promotion of international
peace. Article 44 prescribes for a uniform civil code and directs the State to endeavour to secure to
all citizens a uniform code throughout the territory of India. Article 45 provides that the state shall
endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, free
and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. You have
already read that with the introduction of Article 21A in Chapter III on Fundamental Rights, this
provision of Directive Principles now has been made a Fundamental Right.
JUDICIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF DPSPs
In the case of State of Bihar v. Kameshwar Singh, the Supreme Court relied upon article
39 in arriving at its decision that certain zamindari abolition legislations had been passed
for a public purpose within the meaning of Article 31 of the constitution. The Court
recognized that the reasonableness or public purpose concepts on the basis of which
legislation would be made to stand or fall in relation to the fundamental rights could be
justifiably given a content with reference to the ideals of the directive principles.
In Minerva Mills v. Union of India. J. Chandrachud noted that the Indian Constitution was
founded on the bedrock of balance between Parts III and IV of the Constitution and that
to give absolute primacy to one over the other was to disturb this harmony and balance
between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles, and this harmony and balance
constitutes an essential feature of the Basic structure of the Constitution.
JUDICIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF DPSPs
Within the widening precinct of right to life under Article 21, a number of DPSPs
such as the the right to free legal aid (Article 39A)[M.H. Hoscot, AIR 1978 SC
1548], the right to live in a pollution free environment and right to ecological
protection (Article 48A)[M.C.Mehta v. UOI, (1987) 4 SCC 463], right to equal pay
for equal work (Art 39(d))[Randhir Singh v. Union of India, AIR 1982 SC 879], right
to education (Article 45)[Mohini Jain v State of Karnataka, (1992) 3 SCC 666], and
right to health (Article 47)[Consumer Education & Research Centre v. U.O.I. AIR
1995 SC 922], have been read.
CONCLUSION
Makers of the Constitution wanted to direct the future governments to work for
improvement of conditions of masses, provide equality and social justice by
formulating and implementing positive actions.
The Assembly members were conscious of the limitations of the resources available
with the government in the early years of independence. Therefore, they did not
make Directive Principles as justifiable rights. However, these provisions serve as to
inform citizens that they are entitled to these rights. They can, therefore, assess the
performance of the governments on the basis of sincerity towards these rights. In
recent years even Judiciary has taken a view that in some ways the Directive
Principles are as fundamental as Fundamental Rights and therefore need serious
attention of the government.
