Liberal-intellectual directives, amendments and directives outside Part IV

Detail

1. What "liberal-intellectual" directives are

• Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) are goals in Part IV (Arts. 36–51) that guide the State when it makes laws and policy. India took the idea from the Irish Constitution of 1937.
• DPSPs are non-justiciable. This means a citizen cannot go to court to make the State carry them out.
• The Constitution does not group them itself. Scholars usually sort them into three groups:
• Socialist: welfare and equality.
• Gandhian: village and moral ideas.

• Liberal-intellectual: liberal and modern ideas, such as science, law, the environment, heritage and world peace.

• Liberal-intellectual principles are Arts. 44, 45, 48 (modern farming part), 48A, 49, 50 and 51.

• Art. 44 (uniform civil code) is covered in Section 8.

2. Art. 45: from schooling to early childhood

• Original Art. 45 (1950): the State should give free and compulsory education to all children up to age 14 within ten years of the Constitution starting.
• Why it changed:
• The 86th Amendment Act, 2002 (dated 12 December 2002) added Art. 21A: "free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years", in the way the State decides by law [2][3].
• Education for ages 6–14 therefore became a Fundamental Right, which a court can enforce.

• Art. 45 then had a gap to fill, so the same amendment substituted it.

• Art. 45 today: "The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years" [2][4].

• Early childhood care and education (ECCE) means health, nutrition, play and early learning for children below six.
• How it is delivered: through anganwadis (village childcare centres) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), which began in 1975.
• Exam trap: the 86th Amendment changed three places at once.
• It inserted Art. 21A in Part III.
• It substituted Art. 45 in Part IV.
• It amended Art. 51A in Part IVA, the Fundamental Duties [8].

3. Art. 48: modern agriculture

• Art. 48 has two parts:
• The Gandhian part is about preserving cattle breeds and banning the slaughter of cows and calves.
• The liberal-intellectual part asks the State to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines.

4. Art. 48A: environment, forests and wildlife

• Art. 48A was not in the 1950 Constitution. The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 inserted it [7].
• Text: "The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country" [7].
• Twin duty on citizens, Art. 51A(g): every citizen should "protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures" [8].

• The same 42nd Amendment, 1976 added both Art. 48A and Art. 51A(g). This gave the environment clear recognition in the Constitution for the first time [9].

• Laws that carry it out:

Act	Year	What it does
Wildlife (Protection) Act	1972	Protects wild animals and plants. It came before Art. 48A.
Forest (Conservation) Act	1980	Limits the use of forest land for non-forest purposes.
Environment (Protection) Act	1986	Umbrella law that lets the Centre control pollution.

5. Art. 49: monuments

• The State must protect monuments, places and objects of artistic or historic interest that Parliament declares by law to be of national importance.
• The law that does this is the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. The Archaeological Survey of India runs it.

6. Art. 50: separating the judiciary from the executive

• Text: "The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State" [11].
• Meaning: the people who decide cases and give punishments should be judges. They should not be government (executive) officers such as collectors.
• How it was done:
• The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 is Act 2 of 1974, dated 25 January 1974. Its objects say it was brought in to obey Art. 50 [10].
• Judicial Magistrates handle everything that needs weighing evidence, or any decision that can lead to punishment, penalty or custody [10].
• Executive Magistrates handle only administrative work, such as granting or cancelling a licence and sanctioning or withdrawing a prosecution [10].
• The CrPC 1973 set up these criminal courts in every state [10]:
  • Courts of Session.
  • Judicial Magistrates of the first class. In metropolitan areas, Metropolitan Magistrates.
  • Judicial Magistrates of the second class.
  • Executive Magistrates.

• A separate law did the same for the Union Territories: the Union Territories (Separation of Judicial and Executive Functions) Act, 1969 [12].

• This split was carried into the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, which replaced the CrPC.

7. Art. 51: international peace and security

• Art. 51 asks the State to:
• (a) promote international peace and security.
• (b) keep just and honourable relations between nations.
• (c) respect international law and treaty obligations.

• (d) encourage settling international disputes by arbitration, which means a neutral third party decides the dispute.

• Examples in practice:

• Panchsheel (1954), the five principles of peaceful coexistence agreed with China.
• Non-alignment, meaning India did not join either Cold War bloc.

• Large Indian contributions to UN peacekeeping.

• For more, see the india-external-relations note.

8. Amendments that changed Part IV

Amendment	Change to Part IV	What the new or changed text says
42nd, 1976	Substituted 39(f)	Children to grow up in freedom and dignity, protected from exploitation
	Added 39A	Equal justice and free legal aid
	Added 43A	Workers' participation in the management of industries
	Added 48A	Protect the environment, forests and wildlife
44th, 1978	Added 38(2)	Reduce inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities
86th, 2002	Substituted Art. 45	ECCE for children until they complete six years [2]
97th, 2011	Added 43B	Promote co-operative societies

• Memory tip: the 42nd Amendment added the most directives. It also created Part IVA (Fundamental Duties, Art. 51A) [8].

9. Directives outside Part IV

• Some directives sit in other Parts of the Constitution. Like the Part IV directives, a court cannot enforce them.
• Courts still read them together with the Fundamental Rights (Part III) when they interpret laws.

Art. 335: SC/ST claims to government jobs (Part XVI)

• Rule: the claims of SCs and STs must be considered when the Union or a state appoints people to services and posts. This must be done consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration [6].
• The problem in 1996:
• In S. Vinod Kumar v. Union of India (1 October 1996), the Supreme Court looked at relaxed qualifying marks for SCs and STs in reservation in promotion.

• It held that such relaxations were not allowed under Art. 16(4), because Art. 335 requires efficiency [5].

• The answer, the 82nd Amendment, 2000:

• It added a proviso (an exception clause) to Art. 335.
• The State may now relax qualifying marks or lower standards of evaluation for SCs and STs in reservation in promotion [5][6].

Art. 350A: mother-tongue teaching (Part XVII)

• Every state and local authority should try to provide teaching in the mother tongue at the primary stage to children from linguistic minority groups.
• The 7th Amendment, 1956 inserted it. This was the same amendment that reorganised the states on linguistic lines.

Art. 351: development of Hindi (Part XVII)

• The Union has a duty to spread and develop Hindi so that it can express India's composite culture.
• It should enrich Hindi mainly from Sanskrit and other Indian languages.

Prelims Hooks

• The 86th Amendment, 2002 inserted Art. 21A, substituted Art. 45 with ECCE below six, and amended Art. 51A. Trap: Art. 45 now covers ages 0–6, not 6–14.
• Art. 48A (DPSP) and Art. 51A(g) (Fundamental Duty) were both added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976. The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 is older than both.
• Art. 49: monuments declared of national importance by Parliament's law. The Act is the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
• Art. 50 was carried out mainly by the CrPC 1973. Under it, judicial magistrates try cases and executive magistrates do licences and law and order.
• Art. 51 includes arbitration of international disputes. It is a DPSP, not a Fundamental Duty.
• Amendments and the articles they added: 42nd added 39A, 43A, 48A and substituted 39(f). 44th added 38(2). 97th added 43B.
• Art. 335 proviso was added by the 82nd Amendment, 2000. It overturned the effect of S. Vinod Kumar (1996).
• Art. 350A came from the 7th Amendment, 1956. Trap: it sits in Part XVII, not Part IV.
• "Which directives are outside Part IV?" Answer: Arts. 335, 350A and 351.

Mains Points

• From directive to right (Art. 45 → Art. 21A):
• Education to 14 was meant to be reached within ten years of 1950. It took 52 years to become a right.
• This shows how a non-justiciable DPSP can later become an enforceable right.

• The new Art. 45 now asks the State to provide ECCE. This is a test of how well ICDS anganwadis work.

• Environmental constitutionalism:

• Art. 48A (duty of the State) and Art. 51A(g) (duty of the citizen) together give courts a basis in the Constitution for reading the right to a clean environment into Art. 21.

• Laws from 1972 to 1986 show directives turning into statutes.

• Efficiency v. equality (Art. 335):

• The 82nd Amendment, 2000 relaxed standards for SC/ST promotions.
• Supporters call this substantive equality, meaning equality in real outcomes. Critics say it hurts administrative efficiency.

• It is a classic GS-II debate on reservation in promotion.

• Art. 50 is still unfinished:

• Trials were separated from the executive by the CrPC 1973 and later the BNSS 2023.
• However, executive magistrates still use preventive powers. Reformers say these should also be under judicial control.