Salient features II: rights, duties, franchise and safeguards

Detail

1. Rights, directives and duties: a three-part design

The idea in one line: rights are "promises that must be kept", directives are "guidelines" for the long term, and duties are what citizens owe in return (NCERT: Class 7, Fig. 10.14).

Feature	Part / Articles	Can a court enforce it?	Added when
Fundamental Rights	Part III, Arts. 12–35	Yes (justiciable)	Original, 1950
Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP)	Part IV, Arts. 36–51	No (non-justiciable)	Original, 1950
Fundamental Duties	Part IVA, Art. 51A	No	42nd Amendment, 1976

Fundamental Rights (Part III, Arts. 12–35)

• Justiciable means a person can go to court if the right is broken. The court can order the government to stop.
• Art. 32 lets a person go straight to the Supreme Court to enforce these rights. Art. 32 is itself a Fundamental Right.
• Class 7's examples:
• Art. 14: equality before law. The State must treat all persons equally.
• Art. 21: protection of life and personal liberty.
• Right against exploitation (Arts. 23–24): bans forced labour, human trafficking and child labour in dangerous work.

• Art. 21A: free and compulsory education for children aged 6–14. It was added by the 86th Amendment (2002).

• Limits on government: rights mark out areas the State cannot enter, even with a majority in Parliament (NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1).

Directive Principles (Part IV, Arts. 36–51)

• These are instructions to the government for making laws and policies. No one can go to court to enforce them.
• Class 7's examples:
• Art. 38: a social order based on justice, with less inequality.
• Art. 41: the right to work, to education and to public help in old age, sickness and unemployment.
• Art. 44: a Uniform Civil Code, meaning one set of personal laws (marriage, divorce, inheritance) for all citizens.
• Art. 47: better nutrition and public health, and a ban on harmful intoxicants.
• Art. 48A: protect the environment, forests and wildlife.

• Art. 49: protect monuments of national importance.

• Enabling provisions: the DPSP enable the State to work towards social change. Rights, by contrast, limit what the State can do (NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1).

• The split was chosen on purpose. A newly free, poor country could not promise in court what it could not yet pay for. So the framers put social and economic goals in Part IV and kept the civil liberties in Part III. This follows the Sapru Committee line of thinking (see §3 of the parent note).
• Art. 43B (promote co-operative societies) was later added to Part IV by the 97th Amendment (2011). It asks the State to support their voluntary formation, autonomous working, democratic control and professional management [7].

Fundamental Duties (Part IVA, Art. 51A)

• They were not in the 1950 Constitution [5].
• How they came in:
• The Swaran Singh Committee recommended them [6]
• → the 42nd Amendment (1976) added ten duties as a new Part IVA [5][6]

• → the 86th Amendment (2002) added the eleventh duty: parents or guardians must give their child aged 6–14 a chance to get education [5].

• The eleven duties in short [5]: 1. abide by the Constitution and respect the National Flag and National Anthem; 2. cherish the ideals of the freedom struggle; 3. uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; 4. defend the country; 5. promote harmony and renounce practices that insult the dignity of women; 6. preserve the composite culture; 7. protect the environment; 8. develop a scientific temper; 9. safeguard public property and give up violence; 10. strive for excellence; 11. provide education to children aged 6–14.

• Class 7 lists six of them.

• Not justiciable. No court can issue a writ to enforce a duty. Courts still use the duties to help interpret laws [6].
• Members of the Constituent Assembly did talk about duties alongside rights, but they did not put duties in the text [6].

Women and equality: Begum Aizaz Rasul

• On 22 November 1949, in the Constituent Assembly, Begum Aizaz Rasul said women were stepping into "their rightful heritage of complete equality".
• Class 7's Let's Explore asks which article she meant. The best answer is Art. 14 (equality before law), together with Art. 15 (no discrimination on grounds such as sex).

2. Democracy and citizenship

Secular state

• Secular state means the State has no official religion. It treats all religions equally and does not favour any of them.
• The legal basis is Arts. 25–28: freedom of conscience and religion, freedom to manage religious affairs, no tax used to promote a particular religion, and limits on religious instruction in State-funded schools.
• The word "secular" was added to the Preamble in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment. The same amendment added "socialist" and "integrity".

Universal adult franchise (Art. 326, Part XV)

• Universal adult franchise means every adult citizen can vote. Property, education, income, caste, religion and sex do not matter.
• Art. 326 says elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assemblies will be held on the basis of adult suffrage [3].
• The colonial background: under the Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935, only people with property, income or education could vote. That was about 3–10% of Indians [4].
• The demand grew step by step:
• Nehru Report (1928): a vote for every person aged 21 or over [4]
• Karachi Resolution (1931): adult suffrage in any future constitution [4]

• Cabinet Mission Plan (1946): called universal franchise the "ideal" [4].

• In the Constituent Assembly: the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights recommended it, and the Draft Constitution (1948) included it [4]. It passed almost without debate (NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1). Brajeshwar Prasad was the one member who opposed it [4].

• First general election (1951–52): about 173 million voters were registered [4].
• How the voting age changed:
• In 1950 the voting age was 21
• → the 61st Amendment Act (1988) replaced "twenty-one years" with "eighteen years" in Art. 326 [2]
• → the change came into force on 28 March 1989 [2].

• The reason given: young people were literate and aware, and they deserved a voice in politics [2].

• "The only country" (Class 7, question 4): read this as India giving the vote to all adults from its very first election. The UK and the USA widened the vote in stages, by property, then race, then sex.

Single citizenship (Part II, Arts. 5–11)

• Single citizenship means every Indian is a citizen of India only. No one is a separate citizen of their state.
• The USA has dual citizenship: a person is a citizen of the USA and also of their state.
• Art. 11 lets Parliament make the law on citizenship. That law is the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Independent bodies

Body	Article	What it does
Election Commission	Art. 324 (Part XV)	Supervises, directs and controls elections to Parliament, the state legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)	Art. 148	Audits the accounts of the Union and the states
UPSC and State PSCs	Art. 315 (Part XIV)	Hold exams and give advice on recruiting civil servants

• These bodies are kept independent: they have protected tenure, and their removal is made hard. This keeps elections, audits and hiring away from the party in power.

3. Emergency powers and further tiers

Emergency provisions (Part XVIII)

Type	Article	Ground
National Emergency	Art. 352	War, external aggression or armed rebellion
President's rule (state emergency)	Art. 356	The state government cannot be run according to the Constitution
Financial Emergency	Art. 360	India's financial stability or credit is threatened

• How President's rule works:
• the Governor reports, or the President finds, that the state government cannot be run according to the Constitution
• → the President takes over the state's executive powers
• → the state assembly is suspended or dissolved

• → Parliament makes the state's laws.

• Details are in the note on emergency provisions.

Third tier and the "living document"

• India started in 1950 with two levels of government: the Union and the states.
• The 73rd Amendment (1992) added Part IX (Panchayats). The 74th Amendment (1992) added Part IXA (Municipalities). Together they created a three-tier government.
• Class 7 uses this as its example of a "living document", meaning a constitution that changes through amendments as society's needs change.

Co-operative societies (97th Amendment, 2011)

• The amendment added Part IXB, "The Co-operative Societies" [8].
• Part IXB has 13 articles (Arts. 243ZH–243ZT) [8]. They cover:
• incorporation of co-operatives;
• the number of board members and how long they serve;
• board elections;
• supersession (replacing the board), audit and general body meetings;
• members' right to information;

• multi-State co-operatives [8].

• The amendment also added Art. 43B to the DPSP [7].

• Further detail is in the note on amendments and the basic structure.

Prelims Hooks

• Fundamental Duties: Part IVA, Art. 51A; added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) on the Swaran Singh Committee's advice; there are now 11 [5][6].
• 11th Fundamental Duty (parents to educate children aged 6–14) and Art. 21A both came from the 86th Amendment (2002) [5].
• 61st Amendment Act, 1988: voting age cut from 21 to 18 in Art. 326; in force from 28 March 1989 [2].
• Trap: Arts. 48A (environment) and 49 (monuments) are DPSP, not Fundamental Rights. A citizen cannot go to court to enforce them.
• 97th Amendment (2011): added Part IXB (Arts. 243ZH–243ZT) and Art. 43B in Part IV [7][8].
• Article–body matches: Election Commission – Art. 324; CAG – Art. 148; UPSC and State PSCs – Art. 315.
• Emergency matches: Art. 352 – National; Art. 356 – state (President's rule); Art. 360 – Financial.
• "Secular" entered the Preamble in 1976. It was not in the original 1950 text.
• Under the 1919 and 1935 Acts, only about 3–10% of Indians could vote. The 1951–52 election had about 173 million voters [4].

Mains Points

• Justiciable rights vs. non-justiciable directives: the framers protected civil liberties in court and left social and economic goals to Parliament, which raised them over time. Art. 21A, which turned part of a directive (education) into a right in 2002, shows how the two Parts work together. Use for: "DPSP are a cheque payable at the bank's convenience" (K.T. Shah). Discuss.
• Universal franchise as a bold act of trust: a country where only 3–10% could vote under colonial rule gave every adult the vote at once [4]. This sped up political equality and the voice of marginalised groups, at a time when critics doubted that mass illiteracy and democracy could go together. The 61st Amendment widened the vote further to young people [2].
• Duties added later and through an Emergency-era amendment: the 42nd Amendment (1976) brought them in [5]. Since they are non-justiciable, they are mainly moral guides and aids to interpretation [6]. The debate is whether to make some of them enforceable by law, or to rely on education and awareness.
• Safeguards vs. central power: independent bodies (Arts. 148, 315, 324) and the three-tier government spread out power. Emergency provisions (Arts. 352, 356, 360) let the Union take it back in a crisis. This tension is central to answers on federalism and the misuse of Art. 356 (GS-II).