CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 52 of 120

Correct — A, Part-IV. The words quoted are Article 50 of the Constitution, and Article 50 sits in Part IV, the Directive Principles of State Policy, which runs from Article 36 to Article 51. The placement carries a consequence. Under Article 37 the Directive Principles are not enforceable by any court, so no litigant could have sued a State into separating its magistracy from its district administration; the separation had to be carried out by legislation and administrative reorganisation instead, which is what happened when the Code of Criminal Procedure was recast in 1973, splitting the old office of magistrate into judicial magistrates under the High Court and executive magistrates under the State government. The Article is usually grouped with the liberal-intellectual Directive Principles rather than the socialist or Gandhian ones.

• (b)Part-V — Part V covers the Union — the President, Parliament, the Union judiciary and the Comptroller and Auditor-General. It sets up institutions rather than directing State policy.
• (c)Part-VI — Part VI covers the States — the Governor, the State legislature, the High Courts and the subordinate courts. Articles 233 to 237 on subordinate courts are the nearest thing in it to this subject, but they deal with appointments and control, not with the direction to separate the two branches.
• (d)Part-VII — Part VII is the strongest distractor for the wrong reason. It dealt with the States in Part B of the First Schedule — the former princely units — and was repealed outright by the Seventh Amendment in 1956, so it contains nothing at all today.

Part IV of the Constitution sets out non-justiciable directions to the State which Article 37 nevertheless declares fundamental in the governance of the country. Article 50 is one of them, and its subject is institutional rather than economic — it asks the State to take the judicial function out of the hands of officials who also run the administration and the police.

Article-to-Part questions are answered fastest by holding the boundaries of the big Parts in memory: Part III Fundamental Rights from Article 12 to 35, Part IV Directive Principles from 36 to 51, Part IVA Fundamental Duties at Article 51A, Part V the Union, Part VI the States. Anything in the thirties or forties that reads as an instruction to the State rather than as a right of a citizen is almost certainly a Directive Principle. It is also worth knowing why this particular direction was needed: under colonial administration the district magistrate was both prosecutor's superior and judge, and separating those roles was one of the reform demands the Constituent Assembly inherited.

• Article 50 reads that the State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.
• It lies in Part IV, the Directive Principles of State Policy, Articles 36 to 51.
• Article 37 makes the Directive Principles non-justiciable but fundamental in the governance of the country.
• The separation was carried out chiefly through the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which created judicial magistrates under the High Court and executive magistrates under the State government.
• Part VII of the Constitution, on the States in Part B of the First Schedule, was repealed by the Seventh Amendment in 1956.

• Placing anything about courts in Part V or Part VI without checking whether it is a direction to the State.
• Assuming a repealed Part still contains provisions; Part VII has been empty since 1956.
• Reading non-justiciable as meaning the direction was never acted on — this one was, through ordinary legislation.

As an Article-to-Part or Article-number question, or as a statements item on which Directive Principles have been implemented.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The separation of the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State is enjoined by which Article of the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Article 39A
  • (b)Article 44
  • (c)Article 50
  • (d)Article 51

  Answer(c) Article 50 — Article 39A deals with equal justice and free legal aid, Article 44 with a uniform civil code and Article 51 with the promotion of international peace and security.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Part VII of the Constitution of India, as originally enacted, dealt with

  • (a)the Union Territories
  • (b)the States in Part B of the First Schedule
  • (c)the Scheduled and Tribal Areas
  • (d)Panchayats

  Answer(b) the States in Part B of the First Schedule — the former princely units; the Part was repealed by the Seventh Amendment in 1956.