The concept of the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution was borrowed from the Constitution of

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Ireland. Part IV of the Constitution of India, Articles 36 to 51, was modelled on Article 45 of the Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hEireann) of 1937, which is headed 'Directive Principles of Social Policy'. This is not a claim about vague influence; the debt is visible in the wording, and both texts can be read side by side. The Irish article opens: 'The principles of social policy set forth in this Article are intended for the general guidance of the Oireachtas. The application of those principles in the making of laws shall be the care of the Oireachtas exclusively, and shall not be cognisable by any Court under any of the provisions of this Constitution.' India's Article 37 performs exactly the same manoeuvre: 'The provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.' A written list of social and economic goals that binds the legislature but is closed to the courts — that is the Irish device, and India took it whole. The individual clauses then track almost phrase for phrase. Irish Article 45.1 reads 'The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice and charity shall inform all the institutions of the national life'; Indian Article 38(1) reads 'The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.' Irish Article 45.2.ii wants 'the ownership and control of the material resources of the community' to be 'so distributed... as best to subserve the common good'; Indian Article 39(b) uses that phrase verbatim. Ireland had in turn drawn on the Spanish Republican Constitution of 1931 and on Catholic social teaching, so India sits third in a line of descent rather than at its head.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Britain is the single largest source of borrowed features — parliamentary government, the cabinet system, the office of Speaker, single citizenship, legislative procedure, the writs, parliamentary privileges, the rule of law — so it is the reflex answer for any 'borrowed from' question. It cannot be the source here for a structural reason: the United Kingdom has no written constitution, and therefore no Part to copy. The nearest British ancestor is the 'Instrument of Instructions' under the Government of India Act, 1935, an administrative direction, not a chapter of a constitution.  (b) Switzerland contributes nothing to the standard list of features borrowed by the Indian Constitution. Its distinctive institutions have no Indian counterpart at all: a seven-member collegial Federal Council in place of a Prime Minister and Cabinet, the compulsory and optional referendum, the popular initiative, and direct democracy at cantonal level. The option is present because Switzerland reads as a plausible European federal model, not because any provision of Part IV traces to Berne.  (d) This would mean the Directive Principles came from none of the three named constitutions, which is exactly wrong — Ireland is on the list, and the attribution is textual rather than merely conventional, as the parallel wording of Irish Article 45 and Indian Articles 37, 38 and 39 shows. On a paper where option (d) is 'None of the above' this often, it is worth treating the option as a claim to be disproved rather than a refuge.

Concept: The Directive Principles of State Policy are Part IV of the Constitution, Articles 36 to 51. Article 37 fixes their character: they 'shall not be enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws'. They are therefore non-justiciable but not decorative — a citizen cannot sue on them, yet no government can ignore them without political cost, and courts read them as an aid to interpreting the Fundamental Rights. The familiar textbook grouping into socialistic, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual principles is a teaching device: the Constitution itself sets out Part IV as one undivided list. Part IV has grown by amendment — Articles 39A (equal justice and free legal aid), 43A (participation of workers in management of industries) and 48A (protection and improvement of environment) were inserted by the 42nd Amendment, 1976; Article 38(2), on minimising inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities, by the 44th Amendment, 1978; Article 43B, on the promotion of co-operative societies, by the 97th Amendment, 2011; and Article 45 was recast by the 86th Amendment, 2002 into a duty of early childhood care and education for children below six years, once Article 21A had made elementary education a Fundamental Right.

State PCS 2023 Q57 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q57 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer