Fundamental Duties were incorporated in the Constitution on the recommendation of:
- (a)Shah Commission
- (b)Administrative Reforms Commission
- (c)Santhanam Committee
- (d)Swaran Singh Committee
Correct — D, Swaran Singh Committee.
The Swaran Singh Committee was set up in 1976, under the senior Congress leader and former Union minister Sardar Swaran Singh, to study the question of amending the Constitution.
Among its proposals was a separate chapter stating the duties a citizen owes, to stand beside the rights the Constitution already guaranteed. Parliament accepted that proposal in the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976, which inserted Part IVA and Article 51A.
What was recommended and what was enacted are not the same size. The committee suggested eight duties; Article 51A began with ten, and an eleventh came with the 86th Amendment Act, 2002.
The idea to carry away: the committee recommends, the amendment enacts — a question naming one is not answered by naming the other.
- (a)Shah Commission — The Shah Commission of Inquiry was appointed in 1977 by the Janata government, under J.C. Shah, a former Chief Justice of India.
It is the commission on the excesses committed during the Emergency of 1975-77 — the arrests, the censorship, the demolitions.
Its subject is how power was used, and its work began after the 42nd Amendment had already been passed, so it sits on the other side of this amendment in time.
- (b)Administrative Reforms Commission — The first Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in 1966, with Morarji Desai as its first chairman, to review India's public administration.
It is the body behind the proposal for a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the States.
Its remit was the machinery of government — recruitment, redressal of grievances, centre-state administration — rather than the text of a new Part of the Constitution.
- (c)Santhanam Committee — The Committee on Prevention of Corruption, chaired by K. Santhanam, was appointed in 1962 and reported in 1964 on corruption in the public services.
Acting on it, the government created the Central Vigilance Commission in 1964, by an executive resolution.
Santhanam belongs to the anti-corruption and vigilance track, and what followed from its report was an institution rather than a constitutional amendment.
A constitutional amendment usually has two authors worth separating: a body that studies the problem and recommends, and Parliament, which enacts. An item asking who recommended a provision is a different question from one asking which amendment inserted it.
For the Fundamental Duties the recommending body was the Swaran Singh Committee of 1976; the enacting instrument was the 42nd Amendment Act of the same year, which created Part IVA with its single article, Article 51A.
Part IVA follows Part IV: Article 51A was inserted immediately after Article 51, so the duties sit after the Directive Principles and are addressed to the citizen, not the State. The order runs Part III (Fundamental Rights, Articles 12-35), then Part IV (Directive Principles, Articles 36-51), then Part IVA.
The rights in Part III a citizen can enforce in court; the Directive Principles in Part IV are not justiciable and speak to the State. The duties came in with the 42nd Amendment, the large Emergency-era amendment that changed many other parts of the Constitution as well.
Courts have used Article 51A as an aid in reading other provisions, and Parliament may give a duty teeth through ordinary legislation.
- The Swaran Singh Committee was constituted in 1976 to study the question of amending the Constitution.
- It recommended a separate chapter in the Constitution setting out the duties of citizens.
- The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 gave effect to this by inserting Part IVA, which consists of a single article, Article 51A.
- The committee suggested eight duties, while Article 51A as enacted carried ten.
- The committee also suggested that the law provide penalties for failure to observe the duties; that suggestion was not enacted.
- The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 added the duty of a parent or guardian to provide education opportunities to a child between six and fourteen years.
- The idea of Fundamental Duties was drawn from the Constitution of the erstwhile USSR; Ireland is the source of the Directive Principles.
- A committee under Justice J.S. Verma reported in 1999 on operationalising the Fundamental Duties.
- The Shah Commission of Inquiry was appointed in 1977 to inquire into the excesses of the Emergency of 1975-77.
- The Santhanam Committee's report of 1964 led to the creation of the Central Vigilance Commission that year.
Each option is a real body with its own mandate; the top row is the one that leads to Part IVA.
- Collapsing the recommending body into the enacting instrument. Swaran Singh Committee recommended the duties; the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 inserted them.
- Pairing the duties with Ireland. Ireland is the source of the Directive Principles; the duties trace to the Soviet constitution.
- Carrying the committee's number into the Constitution. Eight duties were suggested, ten were enacted, and an eleventh was added in 2002.
- Assuming the committee's penalty proposal became law. It was a recommendation that Parliament did not enact.
- Placing the Shah Commission before the amendment. Its inquiry was appointed in 1977, after the 42nd Amendment had been passed.
- Reading Santhanam and the Administrative Reforms Commission as constitutional-drafting bodies. Their outputs were the CVC and the Lokpal proposal.
One shape is the one in front of you — a provision on one side and four committees or commissions on the other, testing whether each body is attached to its own output.
The same fact turns up inside statement-based items, where the Swaran Singh recommendation is one statement and the others test the source country or whether the duties can be enforced through a writ.
A third form drops the body altogether and asks for the amendment or the year instead, which is why both halves of the pair need to be held together.
RPSC_2021_PRE_Prelims2021_Q262021The same question, almost word for word, with the same four bodies offered — the answer is again the Swaran Singh Committee. The answer is (d) on both papers; it is Santhanam and Shah that trade places, Shah at (a) and Santhanam at (c) here, the two reversed there — so the body has to be remembered, not its position in the list.
RPSC_2016_PRE_Prelims2016_Q382016The other half of the same pair. It asks when the Fundamental Duties were incorporated rather than on whose recommendation, so the answer there is the year of the 42nd Amendment, 1976. Same amendment, different hook — which is why the committee and the amendment need to be revised together.
UPSC_2012_GS1_Q592012Also on Part IVA, but it tests the contents of Article 51A rather than its origin — which of four propositions actually appear in the list of duties. Preserving the composite culture, developing the scientific temper and striving towards excellence are duties; protecting the weaker sections from social injustice belongs to the Directive Principles.
UPSC_2017_GS1_Q362017Same Part of the Constitution, a third angle: the legal character of the duties rather than who proposed them or what they say. It turns on whether any legislative process has been provided to enforce them and whether they are correlative to legal duties — the enforceability question, which the Swaran Singh Committee's unaccepted penalty proposal also touches.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 gave effect to the Fundamental Duties by inserting:
- (a)Part IVA, containing Article 51A
- (b)Part IV, containing Article 48A
- (c)Part XIVA, containing Article 323A
- (d)Part IX, containing Article 243
Answera — Part IVA was inserted after Part IV, and it consists of the single article 51A, which carries the duties.Options (b) and (c) name insertions made by the very same 42nd Amendment: Article 48A on protection of the environment, which sits in Part IV as a Directive Principle addressed to the State, and Part XIVA on tribunals, with Articles 323A and 323B.
Part IX, on the Panchayats, came much later, with the 73rd Amendment Act of 1992.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Central Vigilance Commission was set up in 1964 on the recommendation of:
- (a)Swaran Singh Committee
- (b)Santhanam Committee
- (c)Shah Commission
- (d)Administrative Reforms Commission
Answerb — the Committee on Prevention of Corruption under K. Santhanam reported in 1964, and the CVC was created that year by an executive resolution acting on it.The Swaran Singh Committee of 1976 recommended the Fundamental Duties, and the Shah Commission of 1977 inquired into the Emergency, both after 1964.
The Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in 1966, later than the CVC, and its well-known proposal was the Lokpal and Lokayuktas.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Fundamental Duties in the Indian Constitution were drawn from the constitution of which country?
- (a)Erstwhile USSR
- (b)Ireland
- (c)Canada
- (d)Japan
Answera — the erstwhile USSR is the source usually credited for the idea of listing a citizen's duties in the constitutional text.Ireland supplied the Directive Principles of State Policy, along with the method of election of the President and the nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha.
Canada is the model for a federation with a strong Centre and residuary powers with the Union, and Japan is cited for the phrase 'procedure established by law'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Part IVA of the Constitution of India, containing the Fundamental Duties, was inserted in the year:
- (a)1975
- (b)1976
- (c)1978
- (d)2002
Answerb — the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 inserted Part IVA. It was enacted in 1976, receiving assent on 18 December, while the Part IVA provisions were brought into force on 3 January 1977 — so a paper that keys the commencement date rather than the Act may print 1977.1975 is the year the Emergency was proclaimed, and the 44th Amendment Act came in 1978, taking the right to property out of Part III and placing it in Article 300A.
2002 is the tempting near miss: the 86th Amendment of that year added one more duty to Article 51A, but the Part itself was already in place.