Limitations and the living vision

Detail

Why study the limitations?

• NCERT Class 11 says the Constitution has three limitations (weak points). Later amendments, laws and court judgments have partly answered each one.
• A cartoon in the chapter makes the point that "no document can be perfect". The framers worked under the conditions of 1946-49, which included Partition, poverty and a new state.
• Limitations of the Constitution: gaps or weaknesses in its design. They are not failures of its core philosophy.

Limitation	What the Constitution did in 1950	Later developments
1. Centralised idea of national unity	Strong Centre; Art. 3, Art. 356, residuary and emergency powers	73rd and 74th Amendments (1992)
2. Gender justice glossed over	Personal laws left to communities; UCC only a directive (Art. 44)	Hindu Code Acts (1955-56); 2005 amendment; Vineeta Sharma (2020); Shah Bano (1985); Shayara Bano (2017); 2019 Act; Uttarakhand UCC 2024; 106th Amendment (2023)
3. Socio-economic rights left non-justiciable	Placed in Directive Principles (Part IV)	Wider Art. 21; Art. 21A (2002); RTE Act 2009; NFSA 2013; Minerva Mills (1980)

Limitation 1: A centralised idea of national unity

• The framers feared that India would break apart after Partition. So they gave the Centre more power than the states.
• Main tools of central power:
• Art. 3: Parliament can form new states and change the area, boundaries or names of states.
  • The bill needs the President's recommendation before it is introduced.
  • The President sends it to the affected state legislature for its views. Those views do not bind Parliament.
  • It passes by a simple majority. It is not treated as an amendment under Art. 368.
• Art. 356 (President's rule): the Centre takes over a state's government when it "cannot be carried on" according to the Constitution.
  • The Governor reports a breakdown, or the President is otherwise satisfied → the President issues a proclamation.
  • Both Houses must approve it within 2 months, by a simple majority.
  • It lasts 6 months at a time and can be extended up to 3 years. Extension beyond 1 year needs extra conditions (44th Amendment, 1978).
  • The state assembly is suspended or dissolved, and Parliament makes laws for the state.
• Residuary powers: power over subjects not named in any of the three lists. These belong to Parliament (Art. 248; Entry 97, Union List).

• Emergency powers: Arts. 352, 356 and 360. During a national emergency (Art. 352), the federal system can work almost like a unitary one.

• Later answer: the 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992) gave panchayats (Part IX, Eleventh Schedule) and municipalities (Part IXA, Twelfth Schedule) constitutional status. This spread power below the state level. See federalism-centre-state.

Limitation 2: Gender justice glossed over, especially inside the family

• Gender justice: equal rights and treatment for women and men. This covers the family as well as public life, including marriage, divorce, inheritance and guardianship.
• Personal laws: separate family laws for each religious community. The Constitution left them in place.
• Uniform civil code (UCC): one common family law for all citizens. Art. 44 only says the State "shall endeavour to secure" it. It is a Directive Principle, so no court can enforce it. NCERT raises this in exercises 6(e) and 9.
• Later steps:
• Hindu Code Bill: opposition in the 1950s forced it to be split into four Acts.
  • Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
  • Hindu Succession Act, 1956
  • Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956
  • Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956
• Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005: amended Section 6 so that daughters became coparceners. A coparcener is a person who holds a share in Hindu joint-family property by birth, as sons always did.
• Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (11 August 2020):
  • Under the new Section 6, a daughter is a coparcener "in the same manner as son", whether she was born before or after the amendment [4].
  • The 2005 Act is retroactive, not retrospective. Daughters became coparceners by birth with effect from 9 September 2005 [4].
  • The Court said that leaving daughters out of the coparcenary was discriminatory [4].
• Shah Bano (1985):
  • The Supreme Court held that a divorced Muslim woman could claim maintenance under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
  • Parliament then passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986.
• Shayara Bano (2017): the Supreme Court set aside instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) by a 3:2 majority.
• Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019: instant triple talaq is now void and a crime, punishable with up to 3 years in jail.

• Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand, 2024 (Act No. 3 of 2024):

  • It is the first state UCC after Independence.
  • It covers conditions for marriage and divorce, and it makes registration of marriages compulsory [5].
  • The Vice-President hailed it on 27 January 2025 as making the UCC "a reality" in Uttarakhand [6].

• Political representation of women:

• The 106th Amendment (2023) reserves one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and the Delhi assembly (Arts. 330A, 332A, 239AA). It was passed as the 128th Amendment Bill.
• It takes effect only after delimitation (redrawing constituency boundaries) based on the first census taken after the Act began.
• The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 would have removed that census condition. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16 April 2026 and negatived on 17 April 2026 [2].
  • It would have raised the maximum size of the Lok Sabha to 850 members (up to 815 from states and 35 from UTs). It would also have allowed delimitation based on the 2011 census [2][3].
  • Because it failed, the linked Delimitation Bill, 2026 became infructuous, meaning it no longer served any purpose [2].
• See gender-religion-caste.

Limitation 3: Socio-economic rights left as non-justiciable directives

• Justiciable: a right that a court can enforce. Fundamental Rights (Part III) are justiciable. Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP, Part IV) are not (Art. 37), even though they are "fundamental in the governance of the country".
• NCERT (exercise 10) finds it puzzling that a poor country kept rights to work, education and livelihood out of the courts' reach.
• Why the framers did this:
• The new state had few resources.
• They preferred gradual change through laws and policy.

• They did not want to make promises that courts could not enforce.

• How courts and Parliament later closed the gap:

• Art. 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) has been read widely to mean the right to live with dignity:
  • Olga Tellis (1985): pavement dwellers in Bombay. The right to livelihood is part of the right to life.
  • Food: through the PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties) case, which began in 2001, the courts issued orders on mid-day meals and ration schemes. This led to the National Food Security Act, 2013.
  • The Act covers up to 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population, about 81.35 crore people at Census 2011 [7].
  • Antyodaya Anna Yojana households (the poorest of the poor) get 35 kg of grain per family per month. Priority households get 5 kg per person per month [7].
  • Courts have also read health and shelter into Art. 21.
• Art. 21A, added by the 86th Amendment (2002): "the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years" in the manner set by law [8]. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 puts this into practice [8][9].
• Minerva Mills (1980):
  • The Court struck down parts of the 42nd Amendment (1976) that had placed all Directive Principles above Arts. 14 and 19.
  • It held that harmony and balance between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles is part of the basic structure. The basic structure is the core of the Constitution that Parliament cannot destroy, even by amendment.
• See dpsp-fundamental-duties.

NCERT's verdict

• These limitations "are not serious enough to jeopardise the philosophy" of the Constitution.

The living vision

• Living document: a constitution that stays relevant by changing through amendments, court rulings and practice, while keeping its core values. See amendment-basic-structure.
• Roots of the vision:
• It grew out of the freedom struggle.
• The Constituent Assembly refined it, starting with the Objectives Resolution (1946).

• The Preamble is its best summary.

• Clashes, but shared values:

• After 75-plus years (NCERT: "69 years" or "five decades"), there have been many clashes: courts versus governments, the Centre versus states, and party versus party.

• Yet all still share the vision of living and prospering together on the basis of equality, liberty and fraternity.

• NCERT's closing line: "Today, keeping alive the philosophical vision of that Constitution may be our important achievement."

• Questions for the citizen:
• Class 7 (question 6) asks whether society has reached the Constitution's ideals and what citizens can do about it.
• Class 11 (exercise 11) asks how your school observed Constitution Day, which falls on 26 November, the day the Constitution was adopted in 1949.

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 44 (uniform civil code) is a Directive Principle, not a Fundamental Right. Courts cannot enforce it.
• Art. 3: the President must recommend the bill first. The state legislature's views do not bind Parliament. A simple majority is enough.
• Residuary powers belong to Parliament: Art. 248 and Entry 97 of the Union List.
• Vineeta Sharma (2020): daughters are coparceners by birth from 9 September 2005, whether they were born before or after the amendment. The 2005 Act is retroactive, not retrospective [4].
• Shayara Bano (2017) → instant triple talaq set aside (3:2). Then the 2019 Act made it void and a crime.
• Olga Tellis (1985) → right to livelihood under Art. 21. Minerva Mills (1980) → the FR-DPSP balance is part of the basic structure.
• 86th Amendment (2002) → Art. 21A (education for ages 6-14), Art. 51A(k) and a new Art. 45. The RTE Act came in 2009.
• 106th Amendment (2023) = women's reservation. The 131st Amendment Bill, 2026 to bring it forward was negatived on 17 April 2026 [2].
• NFSA 2013: covers up to 75% of rural and 50% of urban people. Antyodaya households get 35 kg per family per month [7].
• Hindu Code Bill was split into four Acts (1955-56). The Hindu Succession Act is from 1956, not 1955.

Mains Points

• "No document can be perfect": each limitation came from the needs of 1950: Partition fears, the wish to respect communities, and limited money. The framers' answer was a flexible amendment process plus judicial review, which let later generations fix the gaps. This is the case for the "living document" idea.
• UCC debate: if gender justice is pursued one community at a time (Hindu Code, triple talaq law, Uttarakhand UCC 2024), it can be seen as selective. A national UCC raises concerns about religious freedom under Arts. 25-26 and about federalism. A useful middle path is to reform each law from within, on the basis of equality under Art. 14 and dignity under Art. 21.
• Making directives enforceable: courts reading social rights into Art. 21 has made them enforceable. This is supported by Acts such as RTE 2009 and NFSA 2013. Critics point to judicial overreach and the cost to public money. Supporters reply that Minerva Mills requires a balance between rights and directives.
• Women's reservation: the 106th Amendment is tied to a census and to delimitation, and the 131st Amendment Bill failed in April 2026 [2]. A right that exists on paper but is put off for years weakens the Preamble's promise of equality. Delimitation also raises a fairness question between the northern and southern states.