UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 79 of 147

Correct — C, 1976.

The keyed year is 1976, the year of the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act. Passed during the Emergency on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendations, it received presidential assent on 18 December 1976 and is the amendment that wrote environmental protection into the text of the Constitution.

It did this in three places. Article 48A, a Directive Principle, asks the State to 'protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life'.

Article 51A(g) makes the same protection a Fundamental Duty of citizens. Entries 17A (Forests) and 17B (Protection of wild animals and birds) joined the Concurrent List.

The idea to carry away: one amendment, the 42nd of 1976, put the environment into the Constitution as a Directive Principle, a Fundamental Duty and a Concurrent List subject at the same time.

The stem's wording is lifted almost verbatim from Article 48A, so the phrase itself points to the amendment that inserted it.

• (a)
  1972 — 1972 is the year of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the Wild Life (Protection) Act.

  Both are milestones, but one is a UN conference and the other an ordinary statute, passed by Parliament under Article 252 on resolutions from State legislatures because wildlife was then a State subject.

  The constitutional follow-through came four years later, when the 42nd Amendment gave the Stockholm commitment a home in Articles 48A and 51A(g).

• (b)
  1974 — 1974 is the year of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, the statute that created the Central and State Pollution Control Boards. Like the Wildlife Act, it went through Parliament under Article 252 because water was a State subject.

  The Constitution was amended in 1974 as well, for instance by the 35th Amendment that made Sikkim an 'associate State', but the environmental Articles 48A and 51A(g) were inserted by the 42nd Amendment of 1976.

• (d)
  1978 — 1978 is the year of the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act, the Janata government's partial rollback of the 42nd.

  It moved the right to property out of Part III into Article 300A as a legal right, and replaced 'internal disturbance' with 'armed rebellion' as a ground for national Emergency.

  Articles 48A and 51A(g) survived that rollback and still stand as inserted in 1976, so the environmental provisions keep their 1976 date even though other parts of the 42nd Amendment were reversed two years later.

The Constitution handles the environment in three layers: a Directive Principle that guides the State (Article 48A), a Fundamental Duty that binds citizens (Article 51A(g)), and Seventh Schedule entries that decide which legislature may make laws (Concurrent List entries 17A and 17B).

All three layers came from a single instrument, the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976.

Before it, 'Forests' (entry 19) and 'Protection of wild animals and birds' (entry 20) sat in the State List, so Parliament legislated on them through Article 252, at the request of State legislatures.

• The Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976 received presidential assent on 18 December 1976; Articles 48A and 51A came into force on 3 January 1977.
• Article 48A (Directive Principle): the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.
• Article 51A(g) (Fundamental Duty): to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures.
• The 42nd Amendment moved five subjects from the State List to the Concurrent List: education, forests, wild animals and birds, weights and measures, and administration of justice.
• Forests became Concurrent List entry 17A and protection of wild animals and birds entry 17B; State List entries 19 and 20 were deleted.
• Fundamental Duties (Part IVA) were added on the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendation; ten in 1976, with the eleventh added by the 86th Amendment Act, 2002.
• The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Water Act, 1974 were both passed by Parliament under Article 252 on resolutions from State legislatures.
• The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was enacted under Article 253 to implement decisions of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.
• The 44th Amendment Act, 1978 reversed several 42nd Amendment changes, including the status of the right to property; Articles 48A and 51A(g) remained in place.

• The stem quotes Article 48A almost word for word; reading it as a question about the Wild Life (Protection) Act pulls the answer to 1972.
• The Stockholm Conference (1972) and the Constitution's response (1976) are four years apart; the international commitment and the amendment are separate events.
• The 44th Amendment (1978) undid parts of the 42nd, which invites the guess that it is the environment amendment; its subject matter was property and the Emergency provisions.
• Article 48A directs the State and Article 51A(g) binds citizens; a question asking 'where' the provision sits needs both, while this one asks 'which amendment'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution of India directs the State to endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country?

  • (a)Article 48
  • (b)Article 48A
  • (c)Article 51A(g)
  • (d)Article 21
  Answerb — Article 48A, inserted by the 42nd Amendment, is the Directive Principle addressed to the State in exactly these words. Article 48 concerns agriculture, animal husbandry and the prohibition of cow slaughter.

  Article 51A(g) carries similar words but is a Fundamental Duty of citizens, not a direction to the State.

  Article 21 is the right to life; courts have read an environmental right into it, but the stem's wording is that of Article 48A.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  By the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, the subject 'Forests' was transferred:

  • (a)from the Union List to the Concurrent List
  • (b)from the State List to the Concurrent List
  • (c)from the State List to the Union List
  • (d)from the Concurrent List to the State List
  Answerb — 'Forests' was entry 19 of the State List; the 42nd Amendment deleted it there and inserted entry 17A in the Concurrent List, so Parliament and State legislatures may both legislate on it.

  Forests sat in the State List before 1976, so (a) names the wrong source list and (c) the wrong destination; (d) reverses the direction of the change.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following was enacted before the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976?

  • (a)Environment (Protection) Act
  • (b)Forest (Conservation) Act
  • (c)Wild Life (Protection) Act
  • (d)Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act
  Answerc — the Wild Life (Protection) Act dates from 1972, passed under Article 252 while wildlife was still a State subject.

  The Forest (Conservation) Act is of 1980, the Air Act of 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986, so each of the other three came after the amendment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is the Fundamental Duty listed in clause (g) of Article 51A?

  • (a)to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life
  • (b)to safeguard public property and to abjure violence
  • (c)to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform
  • (d)to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture
  Answera — clause (g) is the environmental duty, and its text ends with 'to have compassion for living creatures'.

  (b) is clause (i), (c) is clause (h) and (d) is clause (f); each is a real Fundamental Duty, but under a different letter.