Which of the following Article was inserted by the 42nd Constitution Amendment to provide for participation of workers in management ?

Question

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Correct — D, Article 43A. The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 inserted Article 43A into Part IV, and it reads: 'The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organisations engaged in any industry.' That is exactly the subject named in the question — workers' participation in management — and no other Article on the list carries it. The 42nd Amendment made three additions to the Directive Principles: Article 39A (equal justice and free legal aid), Article 43A (participation of workers in management of industries) and Article 48A (protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life), besides amending Article 39(f). So two of the four options — 39A and 43A — were indeed inserted by the 42nd Amendment, and the question is decided not by the amendment but by the subject matter. Like every Directive Principle, Article 43A is non-justiciable under Article 37: it directs the State but cannot be enforced by a court.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Article 38 has been in the Constitution since it commenced in 1950 — it directs the State to secure a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people. It was not inserted by the 42nd Amendment; what the 42nd-Amendment era did add to it was clause (2) on minimising inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities, and that clause came through the 44th Amendment Act, 1978, not the 42nd.  (b) This is the sharpest trap on the list, because Article 39A WAS inserted by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 — but its subject is 'equal justice and free legal aid', i.e. the duty to ensure that the legal system operates so that justice is not denied for economic or other disabilities, and to provide free legal aid. It says nothing about workers or industrial management. Right amendment, wrong subject.  (c) Article 45 was part of the original Constitution, where it directed the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of fourteen within ten years. It was later substituted by the 86th Amendment Act, 2002, and now covers early childhood care and education for children below the age of six. Neither the original nor the substituted version came from the 42nd Amendment, and neither deals with workers.

Concept: Part IV of the Constitution (Articles 36–51) contains the Directive Principles of State Policy — non-justiciable directions that Article 37 declares 'fundamental in the governance of the country' but 'not enforceable by any court'. The list is not frozen: Parliament has added to it by amendment. The largest single addition came from the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 — the amendment so sweeping it is nicknamed the 'mini-Constitution', drafted on the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee — which inserted Articles 39A, 43A and 48A into Part IV, added Part IVA with the Fundamental Duties in Article 51A, and added 'Socialist', 'Secular' and 'Integrity' to the Preamble. Later amendments continued the pattern: the 86th Amendment, 2002 recast Article 45 and created Article 21A, and the 97th Amendment, 2011 inserted Article 43B on the promotion of co-operative societies.

State PCS 2019 Q71 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q71 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer