Sambhav-2023

Approach

• Start your answer by giving a brief about Fundamental Duties.
• Discuss the need for giving justiciable character to the Fundamental Duties.
• Conclude suitably.

Introduction

The idea of Fundamental Duties is inspired from the Constitution of erstwhile USSR. These were incorporated in Part IV-A of the Constitution by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 on the recommendations of Swaran Singh Committee. Originally 10 in number, one more duty was added through the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002. All the eleven duties are listed in Article 51-A of the Constitution (the sole Article in Part-IV-A).

Body

Need For Giving a justiciable Character to the Fundamental Duties:

• The fundamental duties enjoined on citizen under Article 51-A should also guide the legislative and executive actions of elected or non-elected institutions and organisations of the citizens including the municipal bodies.

Duties are observed by individuals as a result of dictates of the social system the environment in which one lives, under the influence of role models, or on account of punitive provisions of law. It may be necessary to enact suitable legislation wherever necessary to require obedience of obligations by the citizens.

• The existing laws are inadequate to enforce the needed discipline, the legislative vacuum needs to be filled. If legislation and judicial directions are available and still there are violations of duties by the citizens, this would call for other strategies for making them operational.
• The legal utility of fundamental duties is similar to that of the directives; while the Directives are addressed to the state, so are the duties addressed to the citizens, without any legal sanction for their violation.
  • The citizen, it is expected, should be his own monitor while exercising and enforcing his Fundamental rights. He should keep in mind that he owes the duties specified in Article 51-A to the State and if he does not care for the duties, he does not deserve the rights.
• The duties as such are not legally enforceable in the Courts of law, but if a law has been made to prohibit any act or conduct in violation of the duties, it would be reasonable restriction on the relevant Fundamental Rights.
• Since the Fundamental Duties are not addressed to the State, a citizen cannot claim that he must be properly equipped by the state so that he may perform his duties under Article 51-A.

No Need to Give justiciable Character to Fundamental Duties:

• The list of duties is not exhaustive as it does not cover other important duties like casting vote, paying taxes, family planning and so on. In fact, duty to pay taxes was recommended by the Swaran Singh Committee.
• Some of the duties are vague, ambiguous and difficult to be understood by the common man. For example, different interpretations can be given to the phrases like ‘noble ideals’, ‘composite culture’, ‘scientific temper’ and so on.
• The duties included in the Constitution as fundamental would be performed by the people even though they were not incorporated in the Constitution.
• There are already legal provisions for making these duties legally enforceable like National Honour Act, Wildlife Protection Act, etc.

Conclusion

Citizens are morally obligated by the Constitution to perform these Fundamental duties. The Fundamental Duties are however, not legally enforceable, i.e., without any legal sanction in case of their violation or non-compliance.

There is a need for these duties to be obligatory for all citizens, subject to the State enforcing the same by means of a valid law, or else the law stands in a very disadvantageous position. The Supreme Court has finally, issued directions to the State in this regard, with a view towards making the provisions effective and enabling a citizen to properly perform their duties properly. This project was an attempt to check the enforceability of the fundamental duties under the different statutes, which have been references to the Indian Constitution.