UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 63 of 150

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).

• (a)Only in the Directive Principles of State Policy — 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)Only in the Fundamental Duties — 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)None of the above — 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.

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.

This is a 'where does it live in the Constitution' question, and UPPSC's favourite form of it is the 'only X / only Y / both' ladder. The reliable move is to recall the pair rather than one article: the 42nd Amendment added a State duty and a citizen duty on the environment at the same moment, so whenever an environment-in-the-Constitution question offers 'both', the pairing of Article 48A with Article 51A(g) is what makes 'both' correct. A student who has memorised only Article 48A will confidently pick (a) and lose the mark to the word 'only'.

• Article 48A (Part IV, Directive Principles): 'The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country.'
• Article 51A(g) (Part IVA, Fundamental Duties): every citizen must '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 Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, which also created Part IVA on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee.
• The same amendment moved 'Forests' and 'Protection of wild animals and birds' from the State List to the Concurrent List (entries 17A and 17B).
• Article 253 — Parliament's power to legislate to implement international agreements — is the peg on which the Air Act, 1981 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 were enacted after the Stockholm Conference of 1972.
• Neither article is directly enforceable, but the Supreme Court has read them with Article 21 to recognise a right to a clean and healthy environment.

• Stopping at Article 48A and choosing 'only in the Directive Principles' — the word 'only' is doing all the work in this question.
• Believing the environment was in the Constitution from 1950. Both provisions arrived in 1976; the original text was silent on it.
• Mixing up the Fundamental Duty on the environment, Article 51A(g), with Article 51 (promotion of international peace and security), which is a Directive Principle with an almost identical number.

UPPSC keeps returning to the overlap between Part IV and Part IVA — it asked in 2023 which provision is part of both the Directive Principles and the Fundamental Duties (the answer was protection of the environment) and in 2021 which listed item is NOT a Fundamental Duty; UPSC prefers the litigation angle, asking which constitutional provision the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 rests on.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 48A of the Constitution of India, directing the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wild life, was inserted by which amendment?

  • (a)The 24th Amendment, 1971
  • (b)The 42nd Amendment, 1976
  • (c)The 44th Amendment, 1978
  • (d)The 73rd Amendment, 1992

  Answer(b) The 42nd Amendment, 1976 — the same amendment inserted Article 48A in the Directive Principles and created Part IVA with the Fundamental Duties, including Article 51A(g) on the natural environment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  By the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, the subjects 'Forests' and 'Protection of wild animals and birds' were moved

  • (a)from the Union List to the Concurrent List
  • (b)from the State List to the Concurrent List
  • (c)from the Concurrent List to the Union List
  • (d)from the State List to the Union List

  Answer(b) from the State List to the Concurrent List — they became entries 17A and 17B of the Concurrent List, which is what allowed Parliament to legislate directly on forests and wildlife.