Which one of the following statements with regard to the Directive Principles of State Policy is not correct?

Correct — B, the claim that the Directive Principles can override all the fundamental rights. They cannot. Article 37 makes the Directive Principles fundamental in the governance of the country and a duty on the State to apply in making laws, while expressly providing that they shall not be enforceable by any court. Where a Directive Principle collides with a fundamental right, the right prevails — the position taken in Champakam Dorairajan in 1951 and never reversed as a general rule. The one carve-out is Article 31C, which protects a law giving effect to the policies in Article 39(b) and (c) from challenge under Articles 14 and 19; the Forty-second Amendment tried to widen that shelter to all the Directive Principles, and the Supreme Court struck the extension down in Minerva Mills in 1980. A limited and contested exception is a long way from overriding all the fundamental rights.

• (a)They are not enforceable in a court of law. — Correct, and stated in Article 37 in those words. Non-enforceability is the defining feature that separates Part IV from Part III.
• (c)They can be related to social and economic justice. — Correct. The socialistic group of principles — adequate means of livelihood, distribution of material resources for the common good, equal pay for equal work, a living wage — is aimed at exactly that.
• (d)They can be related to giving free legal aid. — Correct, and specific. Article 39A, inserted by the Forty-second Amendment in 1976, requires the State to provide free legal aid so that opportunities for securing justice are not denied by economic disability.

Part IV sets out instructions to the State that no court will enforce. Textbooks group them as socialistic, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual, though the Constitution itself uses no such labels. The socialistic group covers livelihood, the distribution of resources and a living wage; the Gandhian group covers village panchayats, cottage industries, cow protection and prohibition; the liberal-intellectual group covers the uniform civil code, the separation of judiciary from executive and international peace.

The relationship between Parts III and IV has been the central constitutional argument of the republic. Champakam Dorairajan gave primacy to fundamental rights in 1951 and Parliament answered with the First Amendment. Kesavananda Bharati in 1973 upheld the first part of Article 31C while holding that the basic structure cannot be amended away. Minerva Mills in 1980 struck down the Forty-second Amendment's attempt to give every Directive Principle that immunity, holding that the balance between Parts III and IV is itself part of the basic structure. Non-enforceability has not made the principles inert: courts read them into fundamental rights, and Article 21 has absorbed several of them.

• Article 37 — the Directive Principles are not enforceable by any court but are fundamental in the governance of the country.
• Fundamental rights prevail over Directive Principles in a direct conflict; Champakam Dorairajan, 1951.
• Article 31C shelters laws implementing Article 39(b) and (c) from challenge under Articles 14 and 19.
• Minerva Mills, 1980, struck down the 42nd Amendment's extension of that shelter to all Directive Principles.
• Article 39A, on free legal aid, and Article 43A, on worker participation, were added by the 42nd Amendment.

• Reading 'fundamental in the governance of the country' as making them enforceable.
• Extending the narrow Article 31C shelter into a general primacy for Part IV.
• Assuming a non-enforceable principle has no legal effect; courts use them to interpret rights and to test reasonableness.

A not-correct item where three options restate the law and one overstates it. The overstatement is usually signalled by an absolute word such as 'all'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article declares that the Directive Principles shall not be enforceable by any court?

  • (a)Article 32
  • (b)Article 37
  • (c)Article 39
  • (d)Article 51

  Answer(b) Article 37 — which also calls them fundamental in the governance of the country.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Free legal aid to secure justice for those unable to afford it is required by

  • (a)Article 21
  • (b)Article 39A
  • (c)Article 43
  • (d)Article 47

  Answer(b) Article 39A — inserted by the 42nd Amendment in 1976.