An important feature of the constitution is the Directive Principles of State Policy. Although the Directive Principles are asserted to be ‘fundamental in the governance of the country, they are not legally enforceable.
Instead, they are guidelines for creating a social order characterised by social, economic, and political justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity as enunciated in the constitution’s preamble.
In some cases, the Directive Principles articulate goals that, however admirable, remain vague platitudes, such as the functions that the state ‘shall direct its policy towards securing that the ownership and control of the material resources of community are so distributed to sub serve the common and ‘endeavor to promote international peace and security.’
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In other areas, the Directive Principles provide more specific policy objectives. They exhort the state to secure work at a living wage for all citizens; take steps to encourage worker participation in industrial management; provide for just and humane conditions of work, including maternity leave; and promote the educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other disadvantaged sectors of society.
The Directive Principles also charge the state with the responsibility for providing free and compulsory education for children.
The Directive Principles also urge the nation to develop a uniform civil code and offer free legal aid to all citizens. They urge measures to maintain the separation of the judiciary from the executive and direct the government to organize village panchayats to function as units of self-government.
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This latter objective was advanced by the Seventy-third Amendment and the Seventy-fourth Amendment in December 1992. The Directive Principles also order that India should endeavor to protect and improve the environment and protect monuments and places of historical interest.
The Forty-second Amendment, which came into force in January 1977, attempted to raise the status of the Directive Principles by stating that no law implementing any of the Directive Principles could be declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated any of the Fundamental Rights.
The amendment simultaneously stated that laws prohibiting ‘antinational activities’ or the formation of ‘antinational associations’ could not be invalidated because they infringe on any of the Fundamental Rights.
It added a new section the constitution on ‘Fundamental Duties’ that enjoined citizens ‘to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood among all the people of India, transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities.’
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However, the amendment reflected a new emphasis in governing circles on order and discipline to counteract what some leaders had come to perceive as the excessively freewheeling style of Indian democracy.
After the March 1977 general election ended the control of the Congress (Congress (R) from 1969) over the executive and legislature for the first time since independence in 1947, the new Janata-dominated Parliament passed the Forty-third Amendment (1977) and Forty-fourth Amendment (1978).
These amendments revoked the Forty-second Amendment’s provision that Directive Principles take precedence over Fundamental Rights and also curbed Parliament’s power to legislate against ‘antinational activities’.
The Directive Principles of State Policy are of seminal importance for good governance of the country and the State has to take reference of it whenever any step is taken up.