In which of the following 'the provisions for the protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife' are found in the Constitution of India ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Both (a) and (b). The Constitution carries the environment in two places, and the wording of the question is lifted almost verbatim from the first of them. Article 48A, in Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy), says: 'The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.' Article 51A(g), in Part IVA (Fundamental Duties), makes it a duty of every citizen 'to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures.' Both were inserted by the same amendment — the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 — which is why they read like two halves of one idea: one addressed to the State, the other to the citizen. Since the provision appears in both Parts, neither 'only' option can stand and the answer is (c).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Article 48A is indeed a Directive Principle, so half of this is right — but the word 'only' makes it wrong. Article 51A(g) places the identical obligation on citizens as a Fundamental Duty, so the DPSP is not the sole location.  (b) The mirror-image error. Article 51A(g) is a Fundamental Duty, but the State-facing version in Article 48A sits in the Directive Principles, and the question's own phrasing — 'protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife' — is the language of Article 48A.  (d) Both provisions exist by name in the text of the Constitution. This option would only be right if the Constitution were silent on the environment, which it has not been since 1976.

Concept: The original Constitution of 1950 said nothing about the environment. It entered in 1976, four years after India took part in the UN Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm, through the Forty-second Amendment — which inserted Article 48A among the Directive Principles and the whole of Part IVA (Fundamental Duties), including Article 51A(g). The same amendment also shifted 'Forests' and 'Protection of wild animals and birds' from the State List to the Concurrent List, giving Parliament the power to legislate on them directly. Neither Article 48A nor Article 51A(g) is enforceable in a court by itself; their force has come from the Supreme Court, which has read them together with Article 21 to hold that the right to life includes the right to a wholesome environment.

State PCS 2019 Q63 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q63 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer