CONTENTS
Introduction ............................................................................................ 2
Background ............................................................................................. 2
Classification ........................................................................................... 3
Characteristics ........................................................................................ 3
Criticism .................................................................................................. 4
Significance ............................................................................................. 5
Fundamental Rights & DPSP ............................................................... 6
DPSP and its Implementation ............................................................... 7
Case study on Directive Principles of State Policy.............................. 7
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 8
Appendix ................................................................................................. 9
List of DPSPs under Indian Constitution .............................................. 9
New Provisions of Directive Principles after Amendment ................. 10
References ............................................................................................. 11
DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF STATE POLICIES
INTRODUCTION
The Directive Principles of State Policy of India (DPSP) are the guidelines or
principles given to the federal institutes governing the State of India, to be kept in
citation while framing laws and policies.
These provisions are contained in Part IV (Article 36–51) of the Constitution of
India.
DPSPs are ideals which are not legally enforceable by the courts for their violation
but these principles laid down there in are considered in the governance of the
country, making it the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws to
establish a just society in the country.
They seek to establish economic and social democracy in the country.
They are an ‘instrument of instructions’ which are enumerated in Government of
India Act, 1935
BACKGROUND
The concept of Directive Principles of State Policy was borrowed from the Irish
Constitution. The makers of the Constitution of India were influenced by the Irish
nationalist movement, particularly the Irish Home Rule Movement.
Directive Principles of State Policy in the Irish Constitution were looked upon by
the people of India as an inspiration for the independent India's government to
comprehensively tackle complex social and economic challenges across a vast,
diverse nation and population.
The Sapru Committee in 1945 suggested two categories of individual rights. One
being justiciable and the other being non-justiciable rights. The justiciable rights, as
we know, are the Fundamental rights, whereas the non-justiciable ones are the
Directive Principles of State Policy.
The Constituent Assembly was given the task of making a constitution for India.
The assembly composed of elected representatives and Dr. Rajendra Prasad was
elected as its President.
Both the Fundamental Rights and the DPSP were enlisted in all the drafts of the
constitution (I, II and III) prepared by the Drafting Committee whose chairman was
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
There was mixed reaction as to the significance and utility of the Directive Principles
in the Constituent Assembly. Some members favored the incorporation of these
principles in the body of the Constitution while the others discarded them as useless
precepts on account of their no enforceability.
CLASSIFICATION
The Directive Principles can be classified into threefold category:
1. Socialistic Principles (Articles 39, 41 and 43)
2. Gandhian Principles (Articles 40, 43, 46, 47, 48 & 49)
3. Liberal intellectual principles (Articles 44, 45, 50 & 51)
But rather than narrowing these principles to such ideologies, former Chief Justice
of India, Dr. P.B. Gajendragadkar, however, preferred a four-fold classification:
1. The first group deal with general principles of social policy requiring the
Governments in different States and at the Centre to create a social order in
which three-fold justice (social, economic and political) will inform all the
institutions of national life
2. The second group deals with socio-economic rights of the citizens.
3. The third one sets out the principles of administrative policy for the
Government.
4. The fourth group contain the international policy of the Republic
Thus Part IV gives a broad picture of the progressive principles on which the
Constitution wants the government of the country to be based.
CHARACTERISTICS
The characteristics of the directive principles are:
1. Scope of the Directive Principles is Wide:
The Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution deal with every aspect of the
national life like the social, economic, political and administrative. They also deal
with international place and unity. Thus, their scope is quite vast.
2. Directive Principles are Non-Justiciable:
Article 37 of Indian Constitution makes it quite clear that the courts of the country
cannot order their implementation. Thus the responsibility of their implementation
lies on the shoulders of the state and not to the courts because Article 37 also
mentions that it is the sacred duty of the state to implement the directive principles.
3. Fundamental in the Governance of the Country:
Article 37 of the Indian Constitution states that though the Directive Principles are
not justiciable but they form the basic foundation of the State Policy. It also mentions
that these Principles should always be kept in view while the laws are to be enacted
and administration is to be run.
4. Not Bound with any Particular Ideology:
The Directive Principles of State Policy are an ideology in themselves and they are
not found with particular ideology. Their implementation can be sought by any
ideology. The constitutional fathers adopted the course of Democratic socialism in
order to implement these Directive Principles.
5. Guiding Principles in Law Making:
It is the sacred duty of the members of Indian parliament, State Legislative
Assemblies, City Corporations, District Boards, Panchayats and other political
wings of State Policy to keep these Directive Principles in view. They should try to
implement these principles while making laws. The name Directive Principles is
very significant. It implies that they are the directions for the formulation of State
Policy.
6. Inclusion of Article 31 (c) has Increased the Importance of Directive
Principles:
The 25th constitutional Amendment was passed in 1971. According to this
amendment the Directive Principles of State Policy included in article 39 (b) and 39
(c) have been given precedence over the Fundamental Rights included in article 14,
19 and 31 of the Indian Constitution. This has greatly increased the importance of
the Director Principles of the State Policy.
CRITICISM
The Constitutional validity and usefulness of the Directive Principles has always
remained a controversial issue and opinions have often differed on this point. Some
critics regard these directives as unnecessary appendages to a written Constitution
like ours because they are nothing more than a mere political manifesto devoid of
any Constitutional value. Similar views were expressed by certain members of the
Constituent Assembly while the directives were being considered in the house.
 Some of its critics hold that these principles don’t carry any importance as
their violation can’t be challenged in the courts.
 The Directive Principles are a mere declaration of the instructions which are
to be observed and secured by the State at will. but the Constitution neither
makes them justiciable nor it mentions any limit to what extent it can be
secured.
 These are neither consistently explicit nor properly classified. These appear
to be a collection of instructions which are only based on morals and a State
can’t rely merely on morals for its working.
 Several Directives lack clarity and they have been repeated at different places.
 The Directive to push international peace and friendly relations among all the
nations is just a declaration but the real issue is the securing part of it for
which nothing has been given.
 Part IV includes some directives which are not complete in actual observation.
The ideal is to introduce prohibition but this ideal cannot be really and
effectively realized. The states which introduced prohibition had to scrap it
later on.
 Most of the Directive Principles are based on old and foreign philosophy
which have lost its relevance now.
 Many critics hold that the Preamble should also enlists all these goals which
are given under DPSP and their description in Part IV has made things more
complicated and complex than it was before.
 Directive principles just create an impression about the usage of the legitimate
power by the State and the motive is to gain support through promise-making
and not through inaction.
The criticism against the inclusion of Directive Principles in the body of the
Constitution mainly ensued from the fact that such declaration would tend to remain
a dead letter unless the legislatures initiate effective measures for the transformation
of the social and economic structure of the country in accordance with them.
SIGNIFICANCE
Dr. Ambedkar responded criticism. He said,
The directive principles are like the instruments of instructions which are issued to
the Governor, the colonies and those if India by the British Government under the
1935 Act. What is Directive Principles is merely another name for instrument of
instructions to the legislatures and executives. Whosoever captures will not be free
to do what he likes with it. In the exercise of it, he will have to respect these
instruments of instructions which are called Directive Principles. He cannot ignore
them. A party failed to implement these principles would stand to lose in the next
elections. Thus the accountability to enforced through judicial process.
The Directive Principles strengthen and promotes the concept of welfare state by
seeking to lay down some socio-economic goals which the various governments in
India have to strive to achieve. These principles obligate the state to take positive
action in certain directions in order to promote the welfare of the people and achieve
economic democracy. These principles give directions to the legislatures and the
executive in India as regards the manner in which they should exercise their power.
Fundamental rights impose negative duty on the state which enjoin the state to
refrain from taking pre-judicial action against an individual, whereas Directive
Principles imposes positive duty on the state which depends upon the material
resources and time factor.
The main idea underlying these principles was that they would serve an educational
purpose and might serve as restrains on those who came to power. They could be
held accountable for ignoring these principles before the electorate if not before
court of law.
The preamble of the Constitution lays down the goals of political-socio-economic
democracy for the citizens of India. The Constitutions makers’ rights perceived that
mere political democracy would be meaningless in a country of the poor millions
without economic justice. The directive principles therefore spell out in greater
detail the goal of economic democracy, the socio-eco-content of political freedom
the concept of welfare state. The directive principles thus supplement the preamble
to the Constitution. These principles have been characterized as ‘basic to our social
order’ as they seek to build a social justice society.
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & DPSP
The fundamental rights seek to impose restrictions on the State to not to encroach
upon individual liberty. But it is to be noted that these rights through indispensable
can have no meaning for the poor and economically backward classes of people who
constitute a bulk of the population of India. The only solution for making these rights
meaningful to them would be to usher a new social order where social economic and
political justice prevails so as to secure the general welfare and economic prosperity
of the people. The framers of the Constitution, therefore, declared socio-economic
justice as the goals in the preamble of the Constitution and enumerated social and
economic precepts under the Directive Principles of State Policy to be implemented
by the state to attain this end. These directives, therefore, constitute the most
important and creative part of the Constitution and embody the hopes and aspirations
of the people.
DPSP AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION
Although the implementation of the principles laid down in Part IV are not directly
visible yet there are large and excessive of laws and government policies which
reflect the application of the principle of Part IV. In the Judicial History of India,
many laws and legal provisions were created by judicial reasoning. In such cases,
DPSPs played a very vital role and the courts considered the directive principles
very cautiously.
Policies like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA) get their authority from Article 39(a) which talks about the right to
adequate means of livelihood. Laws such as the Child Labor (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act 1986 bolster the canons of Article 39(g) which deals with the
protection of children.
Laws about the prohibition of slaughter of cows and bullocks get their sanctity from
Article 48 which deals with the organization of agriculture and husbandry. Laws
such as Workmen Compensation Act, Minimum Wages Act, Industrial Employment
(Standing Orders) Act, The Factories Act, and Maternity Benefit Act depict the
implementation of Article 41, Article 42 and Article 43A.
CASE STUDY ON DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY
The question that arises is whether Fundamental Rights precedes DPSPs or latter
takes a higher position than the former, it has been a subject of argument for years.
There are some important judicial pronouncements which tried to give an answer to
this question, they are as follows:
Kerala Education Bill
The court said that if a conflict arises between Fundamental Right and DPSPs, the
harmony between the two should not be disturbed, but if, even after applying the
doctrines of interpretation the conflict doesn’t resolves then the former should be
upheld and given more importance over the other i.e. DPSP.
Madras vs Champakan
If any law is in contravention to the provisions mentioned under Part III of the Indian
Constitution, it would be held void but this is not applicable in case of DPSPs. This
shows that Fundamental rights are on a higher pedestal than DPSPs as far as this
case is concerned.
Venkataraman v. State of Madras
The Court gave more importance to the Fundamental rights over DPSPs.
I. C. Golaknath & Ors vs State of Punjab & Anr.
The Court held that the Parliament cannot curtail the Fundamental rights in making
any law or policy for the country. It also mentioned that if a law has been made to
give effect to Article 39 (b) and Article 39 (c) of Part IV of the Constitution and in
doing so if Article 14, Article 19 or Article 31 gets violated, then it cannot be
declared as void merely on the ground of such contravention.
Keshavnanda Bharati vs the State of Kerala
The Apex Court placed DPSPs on a higher position than Fundamental Rights.
After that, in the case of Minerva Mills vs Union of India [6], the Court while
deciding the case held that the harmony between the two should be maintained
because neither of the two has any precedence over each other. Both are
complementary to each other and they should be balanced anyhow for the proper
functioning of the State.
Unnikrishnan vs State of Andhra Pradesh
The Court was of the view that Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles are not
exclusive but complementary to each other. The Court said that the Fundamental
Rights are the ways through which the goals given in Part IV can be achieved.
CONCLUSION
Regardless of the non-justifiable nature of DPSPs, a citizen should be aware of them.
Merely because they are not justifiable in a court of law, does not render them
useless. Their importance has increased manifold over the years. They serve not only
as guidelines today, but also keep a check on the governments, even though that
check is not the Court’s but the citizens.
Article 37 describes these principles as fundamental in the governance of the
country. The objective of the DPSPs is to better the social and economic conditions
of society so people can live a good life. Knowledge of DPSPs helps a citizen to
keep a check on the government.
A citizen can use DPSPs as a measure of the performance of the government and
can identify the scope where it lacks. A person should know these provisions
because ultimately these principles act as a yardstick to judge the law that governs
them. Moreover, it also constrains the power of the state to make a draconian law.
Through various judicial pronouncements, it is settled principle now that balancing
DPSPs and Fundamental rights is as important as maintaining the sanctity of
Fundamental Rights. Non-following a directive principle would directly or
indirectly affect the Fundamental Right which is considered as one of the most
essential parts of the Constitution.
The parties that form governments today are not concerned with the well-being of
the nation. They play divisive politics for their betterment. They are concerned with
the furtherance of their ideologies that the nation may not even share. In this
environment, the DPSPs is a yardstick for the government’s performance and also a
check on arbitrary legislation.
APPENDIX
LIST OF DPSPS UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION
Article 36: Defines State as same as Article 12 unless the context otherwise defines.
Article 37: Application of the Principles contained in this part.
Article 38: It authorizes the state to secure a social order for the promotion of the
welfare of people.
Article 39: Certain principles of policies to be followed by the state.
Article 39A: Equal justice and free legal aid.
Article 40: Organization of village panchayats.
Article 41: Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases.
Article 42: Provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity leaves.
Article 43: Living wage etc. for workers.
Article 43-A: Participation of workers in management of industries.
Article 43-B: Promotion of cooperative societies.
Article 44: Uniform civil code for the citizens.
Article 45: Provision for early childhood care and education to children below the
age of six years.
Article 46: Promotion of education and economic interests of SC, ST, and other
weaker sections.
Article 47: Duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living
and to improve public health.
Article 48: Organization of agriculture and animal husbandry.
Article 48-A: Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of
forests and wildlife.
Article 49: Protection of monuments and places and objects of national importance.
Article 50: Separation of judiciary from the executive.
Article 51: Promotion of international peace and security.
NEW PROVISIONS OF DI RECTIVE PRINCIPLES A FTER AMENDMENT
 Four new Directive Principles were added in the 42nd Amendment Act of
1976 to the original list.
a) Added clause in Article 39: To secure opportunities for healthy
development of children.
b) Added clause in Article 39 as Article 39A: To promote equal justice
and to provide free legal aid to the poor.
c) Added clause in Article 43 as Article 43 A: To take steps to secure the
participation of workers in the management of industries.
d) Added clause in Article 48 as Article 48A: To protect and improve the
environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife.
 The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 added one more Directive Principles which
requires the state to minimize inequalities in income, status, facilities and
opportunities in article 38.
 The 86th Amendment Act of 2002 changed the subject-matter of Article 45
and made elementary education a fundamental right under Article 21 A. The
amended directive requires the State to provide early childhood care and
education for all children until they complete the age of six years.
 The 97th Amendment Act of 2011 added a new Directive Principle relating
to co-operative societies. It envisages that the state to promote voluntary
formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional
management of co-operative societies (Article 43B).
REFERENCES
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Introduction to Constitution of India by D.D. Basu (Chapter 9 on DPSP)
Article on website http://www.legalserviceindia.com/
Article by Hemant Singh on www.jagranjosh.com
Blog by Subodh Asthana on http://www.legalserviceindia.com/
Article by Rashmi G on www.politicalsciencenotes.com
Information on https://en.wikipedia.org/
Chapter 3 from Unknown book on https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/
Case studies from https://indiankanoon.org/