UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 71 of 150

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.

• (a)Article 38 — 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)Article 39A — 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 — 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.

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.

The whole question turns on separating the amendment from the subject. A candidate who has memorised only 'the 42nd Amendment added Directive Principles' still has two live options — 39A and 43A — and must know which one carries workers. The safe way to hold these is by theme: 39A is about the courts (equal justice, free legal aid), 43A is about the shop floor (workers in management), 48A is about the environment. A second, very common confusion is 43A with 43B: they sit next to each other, but 43B (promotion of co-operative societies) is a much later insertion by the 97th Amendment, 2011 — UPPSC exploited exactly this pairing in its 2021 paper by offering '43A — promotion of co-operative societies' as the wrongly matched option.

• Article 43A — 'Participation of workers in management of industries' — inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976.
• Text of Article 43A: 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.
• The 42nd Amendment's three additions to Part IV: Article 39A (equal justice and free legal aid), Article 43A (workers in management), Article 48A (environment, forests and wild life).
• The 42nd Amendment also inserted Part IVA — Article 51A, the Fundamental Duties — and added 'Socialist', 'Secular' and 'Integrity' to the Preamble; it followed the Swaran Singh Committee's recommendations.
• Article 43B (promotion of co-operative societies) is a different provision altogether, inserted by the 97th Amendment Act, 2011.
• Article 45 was substituted by the 86th Amendment Act, 2002 (early childhood care and education below six), which also inserted Article 21A and the duty in Article 51A(k).
• Article 37 makes every Directive Principle, Article 43A included, non-justiciable — a court cannot compel the State to act on it.

• Confusing Article 39A with Article 43A — both were inserted by the 42nd Amendment, but 39A is free legal aid and 43A is workers in management.
• Confusing Article 43A with Article 43B — 43B (promotion of co-operative societies) came from the 97th Amendment, 2011, three and a half decades later.
• Assuming a Directive Principle can be enforced in court because it is 'in the Constitution' — Article 37 expressly makes Part IV non-justiciable.

UPPSC asks this from the Article-number side — 'which Article was inserted by which amendment', or a NOT-correctly-matched Article-to-subject pair — while UPSC asked the identical fact from the subject side in 2017: 'which principle was added to the Directive Principles by the 42nd Amendment?' Learn the pairing both ways and either phrasing is a giveaway.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following Directive Principles was NOT inserted into the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976?

  • (a)Article 39A — equal justice and free legal aid
  • (b)Article 43A — participation of workers in the management of industries
  • (c)Article 48A — protection and improvement of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life
  • (d)Article 43B — promotion of co-operative societies

  Answer(d) Article 43B — promotion of co-operative societies. It was inserted by the 97th Amendment Act, 2011, whereas 39A, 43A and 48A all came from the 42nd Amendment, 1976.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Article 43A of the Constitution of India directs the State to secure the participation of workers in the management of industry

  • (a)by suitable legislation or in any other way
  • (b)as a fundamental right enforceable under Article 32
  • (c)only through an executive order of the President
  • (d)only in undertakings owned by the Central Government

  Answer(a) By suitable legislation or in any other way — that is the wording of Article 43A. Being a Directive Principle it is non-justiciable under Article 37, so it is neither a fundamental right nor limited to Central undertakings.