UPPSC 2025 Prelims Q100: Given below are two statements, one is labelled as

Q: What is the answer to UPPSC 2025 Prelims Q100?

D. Correct — D, both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). Read the printed options before you answer: this booklet puts 'both true and R IS the explanation' at option (d) and 'both true but R is NOT the explanation' at option (a) — the reverse of the layout most candidates have memorised. On the substance: the Assertion is true. The Directive Principles occupy Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution, and although Article 37 makes them non-enforceable by any court, the same Article declares them 'fundamental in the governance of the country' and imposes a duty on the State to apply them in making laws — which is precisely a claim about the economic, social and political functioning of a modern democratic state. The Reason is also true, and it is the standard description of Part IV: the Directive Principles aim to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state. And the Reason is exactly why the Assertion holds. Fundamental Rights in Part III secure political democracy by restraining the State; Part IV was written to do the opposite work — to direct the State towards the economic and social conditions in which citizens can actually lead a good life. Because that is their core object, the Directives necessarily bear on the economic, social and political business of governing. R is not a fact sitting beside A; it is the ground of A.

UPPSC 2025 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 100 of 150

Verified against the official question paper. Answer as per the official UPPSC answer key.

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Directive Principles are important for economic, social and political functions in a Modern Democratic State. Reason (R) : The core objectives of Directive Principles is to establish economic and social democracy. Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :

(a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(b)(A) is true, but (R) is false
(c)(A) is false, but (R) is true
(d)Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)

Answer

Why

Correct — D, both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). Read the printed options before you answer: this booklet puts 'both true and R IS the explanation' at option (d) and 'both true but R is NOT the explanation' at option (a) — the reverse of the layout most candidates have memorised. On the substance: the Assertion is true. The Directive Principles occupy Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution, and although Article 37 makes them non-enforceable by any court, the same Article declares them 'fundamental in the governance of the country' and imposes a duty on the State to apply them in making laws — which is precisely a claim about the economic, social and political functioning of a modern democratic state. The Reason is also true, and it is the standard description of Part IV: the Directive Principles aim to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state. And the Reason is exactly why the Assertion holds. Fundamental Rights in Part III secure political democracy by restraining the State; Part IV was written to do the opposite work — to direct the State towards the economic and social conditions in which citizens can actually lead a good life. Because that is their core object, the Directives necessarily bear on the economic, social and political business of governing. R is not a fact sitting beside A; it is the ground of A.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) — This is the trap, and in the 2025 booklet it is doubly dangerous, because a candidate drilled on the usual UPSC code may tick (a) believing it means 'R IS the explanation'. Here it means the opposite. On the merits it also fails: both statements are true, but the object of Part IV is not an unrelated fact placed next to the assertion. Establishing economic and social democracy is the whole purpose for which the Directive Principles exist, so it is the reason they matter to the functioning of a modern democratic state.
(b)(A) is true, but (R) is false — The Reason is not false. It is the settled account of what Part IV is for: the Directive Principles seek to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state. Article 38 puts it in the constitutional text itself, directing the State to secure a social order in which justice — social, economic and political — informs all the institutions of national life.
(c)(A) is false, but (R) is true — The Assertion is not false either. Non-justiciability is not unimportance: Article 37 calls the Directives fundamental in the governance of the country, and they have driven a great deal of hard law — panchayati raj under Article 40 through the 73rd Amendment, free legal aid under Article 39A, and the right to education, which moved from Article 45 in Part IV to a Fundamental Right in Article 21A by the 86th Amendment. A part of the Constitution with that record cannot be called unimportant to the economic, social and political functioning of the State.

Concept

The Directive Principles of State Policy are contained in Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution of India, and were modelled on the Directive Principles of Social Policy in the Constitution of Ireland. They are not enforceable by any court — Article 37 says so in terms — but the same Article declares them fundamental in the governance of the country and makes it the duty of the State to apply them in making laws. Their stated purpose is to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state, so they are the complement of the Fundamental Rights: Part III secures political democracy by limiting what the State may do to the citizen, Part IV sets out the social and economic ends the State is meant to pursue.

Work an assertion-reason item in three steps: is A true on its own, is R true on its own, and only then, does R account for A? Both halves here are safely true, so the whole question comes down to whether the Reason explains the Assertion — which means the real choice is between the 'both true' options. That makes reading the printed code non-negotiable. In this 2025 booklet, and in all twenty of its assertion-reason questions, the code is inverted from the familiar UPSC arrangement: (a) is 'both true, R is NOT the explanation' and (d) is 'both true and R IS the explanation'. Apply the explanation test itself: strip away the object of establishing economic and social democracy, and the claim that the Directives matter to the economic, social and political functioning of the State loses its entire basis. That dependence is the signature of a correct explanation, so the answer is the 'R IS the explanation' option — here printed as (d).

Key facts

The Directive Principles occupy Part IV, Articles 36 to 51, of the Constitution and were drawn from the Constitution of Ireland
Article 37 provides that the Directive Principles shall not be enforceable by any court, while declaring them fundamental in the governance of the country and a duty of the State to apply in making laws
Their purpose is to establish social and economic democracy through a welfare state, complementing the Fundamental Rights, which secure political democracy
Article 38 directs the State to secure a social order in which social, economic and political justice informs all the institutions of national life; Article 38(2), inserted by the 44th Amendment (1978), adds the duty to minimise inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities
The 42nd Amendment (1976) itself added Directives — Article 39A on equal justice and free legal aid, Article 43A on workers' participation in the management of industries, and Article 48A on protection of the environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife
Several Directives have hardened into law or into rights: Article 40 through the 73rd Amendment's panchayati raj, Article 39A through the legal-services machinery, and Article 45 through the 86th Amendment, which created the Fundamental Right to education in Article 21A

The illuminated Preamble page of the Constitution of India: the calligraphed text beginning 'WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA' inside a wide gold border of flowers, birds, elephants and geometric panels — the Preamble's promise of JUSTICE — social, economic and political — is the goal that Part IV translates into instructions to the State; the Directive Principles are the machinery for the social and economic halves of that promise, which is exactly what the Reason in this question assertsImage: Illumination/ornamentation by Beohar Rammanohar Sinha , calligraphy by Prem Behari Narain Raizada. · Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Study next

Part IV article by article, and the conventional classification of the Directives into socialistic, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual groupsArticle 37 and non-justiciability — and how the Supreme Court has nonetheless read Directive Principles into Article 21The Fundamental Rights versus Directive Principles line of cases: Champakam Dorairajan (1951), Kesavananda Bharati (1973), Minerva Mills (1980) and Article 31CDirectives added or amended after 1950: Articles 39A, 43A and 48A by the 42nd Amendment (1976), Article 38(2) by the 44th Amendment (1978), and Article 43B by the 97th Amendment (2011)Fundamental Duties in Part IVA, Article 51A — how they were added and how they differ from Directive Principles

Common traps

The 2025 booklet's inverted assertion-reason code: here (a) means 'both true but R is NOT the explanation' and (d) means 'both true and R IS the explanation'. Read the printed option text every single time rather than answering from the remembered UPSC layout
Reading 'not enforceable by any court' as 'unimportant'. Article 37 calls the Directives fundamental in governance, and the Assertion in this question is about importance, not enforceability
Mixing up which Part secures which democracy — Fundamental Rights are the vehicle of political democracy, Directive Principles of social and economic democracy

UPPSC sets Part IV either as an assertion-reason pair on what the Directives are for, as here, or as a matching item asking which provision belongs to the Directive Principles and which to the Fundamental Duties, as it did in 2023. UPSC prefers a statement pair on socio-economic democracy and non-justiciability, or a one-line question on which Part declares the ideal of a welfare state.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2002_GS1_Q442002Open & attempt →

The purpose of the inclusion of Directive Principles of State Policy in the Indian Constitution is to establish:

(a) political democracy
(b) social democracy
(c) Gandhian democracy
(d) social and economic democracy

Answer(d) social and economic democracy

This is the Reason of the present question set as a question in its own right. UPSC's answer — that the purpose of Part IV is to establish social and economic democracy — is precisely what makes the Reason true here, and true in a way that explains the Assertion.

UPSC_2015_GS1_Q72015Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements regarding the Directive Principles of State Policy: 1. The Principles spell out the socio-economic democracy in the country. 2. The provisions contained in these Principles are not enforceable by any court. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer(c) Both 1 and 2

Carries both halves of this card at once — that the Directives spell out socio-economic democracy, and that Article 37 makes them non-justiciable. It is the second half that tempts candidates to call the Assertion false; UPSC's answer confirms that non-enforceable and unimportant are not the same thing.

UPPSC_2023_PRE_PaperI_Q542023Open & attempt →

Which of the following Provision is a part of both Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties?

(a) Participation of workers in management of industries
(b) Protection of environment
(c) Guardians to provide opportunity for education to children
(d) Uniform Civil Code

Answer(b) Protection of environment

The same Part IV, tested on its contents rather than its purpose. Knowing which social and economic objectives the Constitution parks in the Directive Principles is what makes the claim about establishing economic and social democracy concrete rather than abstract.

UPPSC_2021_PRE_PaperI_Q462021Open & attempt →

Which one of the following is NOT correctly matched ? (Provisions) – (Sources)

(a) Fundamental Rights – USA
(b) Directive Principles of State Policy – Ireland
(c) Residual Powers of Center – Australia
(d) Emergency powers – Germany

Answer(c) Residual Powers of Center – Australia

Fixes the origin of Part IV — the Directive Principles came from Ireland, while the Fundamental Rights came from the United States. That split of sources mirrors the split of purposes on which this question turns: political democracy from one tradition, social and economic democracy from the other.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which Article of the Constitution of India provides that the Directive Principles of State Policy shall not be enforceable by any court, but are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country?
- (a)Article 36
- (b)Article 37
- (c)Article 38
- (d)Article 39
Answer(b) Article 37 — it makes the Directive Principles non-justiciable while declaring them fundamental in the governance of the country and a duty of the State to apply in making laws.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution of India were drawn mainly from the Constitution of which one of the following countries?
- (a)The United States of America
- (b)Ireland
- (c)Canada
- (d)Australia
Answer(b) Ireland — Part IV was modelled on the Directive Principles of Social Policy in the Irish Constitution, while Fundamental Rights drew on the United States.