Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 18 Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties
- Fundamental rights are a main form of rights.
- The rights that have been provided to the citizens, and because of being essential to the overall development of an individual, they are called fundamental rights.
- The state cannot interfere in fundamental rights.
Importance and Necessity of Fundamental Right:
- Through fundamental rights, the security of the physical, mental and moral development of each citizen is provided.
- The fundamental rights given in the constitution help in curbing the actions of the executive and legislature.
- Fundamental rights provide security from the power of the rights of the government and the dictatorship of the majority.
- In case of violation of fundamental rights, a citizen can appeal to the judiciary.
- The constitution has established equality among all the citizens by giving fundamental rights to the citizens.
- Fundamental rights are both protector and parameter of the freedom of the individual.
Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution:
- There are 23 articles in the constitution regarding the fundamental rights. They range from article 12 to 30 and form 32 to 35.
- Fundamental rights facilitate the development of human personality.
- Although, seven fundamental rights were given to the Indian citizens by the Indian constitution, but the fundamental right to property was diluted by the 44th constitutional amendment. Now it has been included as a legal right only.
- The fundamental right are presendy guaranteed under six categories :
- Right to Equality (Article 14 to 18)
- Right to freedom (Article 19 to 22)
- Right against Exploitation (Article 23 to 24)
- Right to Freedom of Religion (Article 25 to 28)
- Cultural and Educational Rights (Article 29 to 30) ‘
- Right to constitutional Remedies (Article 32)
- According to article 14, in its territory, the state shall not deny any citizen equality before the law or protection of the law.
- Article 15 directs the state that no citizen faces discrimination on the basis of religion, origin, caste, gender, or birth place.
- Article 16 guarantees that all the citizens have equal opportunities of public service under the state. O In article 17, the practice of untouchability has been completely prohibited in the constitution with a view to increasing equality.
- Article 18 mentions that the Indian citizens shall not accept any title except in the field of education or in the army. They shall not accept any foreign title without due permission from the President of India.
- The Indian constitution guarantees six basic freedoms, i.e. freedom of speech and expression, freedom to assemble peacefully and without arms, freedom to form association or union, freedom to move freely throughout the territory of India, freedom to reside and settle in any part of territory of India and freedom to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.
- Prevention detention means detention of a person without trial. It is not a process of punishing a person, but of preventing him from committing a crime.
- A person cannot be detained for more than three months under this law, unless the detention is approved by an Advisory Board consisting of at least a judge with qualifications for appointment as a judge of the High court.
- Article 23, prohibits forced labour. There has always existed the tradition of slavery in some or other form for centuries in our country.
- According to article 24, the children of the age of 14 or less cannot be employed in the factories, mines and in hazardous works.
- According to article 25, freedom of conscience and freedom of profession, practice, and propagation of any religion has been granted.
Under article 26, the followers of each religion have been granted the following rights:
- The Provision of managing own affairs of religious institutions.
- Receiving or giving donation for religious activities shall be tax free.
- All the religions and religious communities have the right to run educational institutions, but no individual can be forced to get such religious education.
- According to article 28, no religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of state funds.
- Under article 29, all the citizens have been granted right of the freedom of education and culture.
- Under article 30, all minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- By 86th constitutional amendment, by adding section 21-(a) to section 21, education has been given the status of fundamental right.
- According to article 32, a citizen may appeal to judiciary for implementation of these fundamental rights.
- For the protection of the fundamental right, the following five types of writs cm be issued by the High Court or the
Supreme Court:
- Habeas Corpus : It can be issued on the request of a person who thinks that he may be imprisoned illegally.
- Mandamus : This writ is a command issued by court to public officials of government, asking them to perform their duties which they are not doing.
- Prohibition : This writ is. issued by the Supreme Court and High courts to prohibit the lower courts which are doing something which exceeds their jurisdiction.
- Certiorari : This writ is issued to send a case from lower, court to a higher court so that it may not act beyond its jurisdiction and the principle of natural justice may be followed.
- Quo Warranto : When a person tries to hold a public post in government or semi government institution, this writ may be issued to him, asking the legality of the claim of a person, or public office on which basis he/she is working there.
Appreciation of Fundamental Right:
- Suspension of fundamental rights during emergency is justified, but their suspension in peace time puts a question mark on their existence.
- In spite of the judicial security given to the fundamental right, the present judicial system is not able to protect the rights of the common citizen because judicial process is very long, complex, and expensive.
- The violation of fundamental rights is only short-lived.
Directive Principles:
- The directive principles of state policy have been taken from the constitution of Ireland.
- The directive principles of state policy are the ideas which have been included in the constitution as the guide for the future governments.
- The Advisory committee on fundamental rights had also accepted that the directive principles be considered as fundamental principles for the administration of the governments.
- From article 36 to 51 section 4 of the constitution, the directive principles of the state policy have been described.
These principles or elements many be divided into the following categories to facilitate their proper study:
- Directive principles and economic security.
- Directive principles and social security and education.
- Directive principles and Panchayati Raj, ancient heritage, sites and justice.
- Directive principles and international peace and security.
Importance of Directive Principles:
- Directive principles are very important from the practical and constitutional point of view. Their importance can be described as follows :
- Code of conduct for a government.
- The outline of a welfare state.
- A parameter to judge a government.
- Helpful in implementing the constitution.
- Helpful in bringing about social and economic change.
- Some Examples of implementation of Directive Principles:
- Land Reforms
- Panchayati Raj and local self government
- Five year plans
- Welfare of weaker sections
- Social security
- Nationalization of big industries
- Reformation in the judicial system
- The right to free and compulsory primary education
- Change in the system of right to property
- Same salary for the same work.
- For the economic progress of the country, planning system was adopted. For this, a structure of the economic development was prepared by forming a planning commission.
- Having formed a 7 member National Commission for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes by the 65th constitutional amendment, it has been given constitutional status. The commission will be able to investigate the cases of exploitation of the people of this section.
- With a view to empowering women, 30% posts have been reserved for women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions and in the urban local self-governments by the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments.
- With a view to achieving the goal of economic equality, life insurance, transportation, coal mining, tourism, alongwith major banks, have been nationalized.
- Considering the right to property, an obstacle in the path of economic and social justice, it has been removed from the list of fundamental rights. Now it has been reduced to the status of legal right only, by the 44th constitutional amendment.
- Abolishing the discrimination based on class, caste, gender in earning a living, a provision of same salary for the same work has been made. With a view to establishing a secular, socialist and welfare state in India, the directive principles of state policy have been implemented. .
Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles:
- Both the fundamental rights and directive principles are dedicated to the development and welfare of the citizens. These are to raise the standard of life of the citizens. Yet they differ from each other: Fundamental rights are legal rights, but directive principles are social, moral obligations.
Relation between Fundamental Right and Directive Principles:
- Fundamental rights have been described in section 3 of the constitution and directive principles in section 4 of the constitution. They both collectively present the plan of establishing the welfare state.
- By 42nd amendment of the constitution, directive principles were given priority over fundamental rights, but later on in the case of Minerva Minerals, the Supreme Court diluted the supremacy of directive principles over fundamental rights and made it clear that the power of Parliament regarding amending the constitution is not unlimited.
- At presents, the fundamental rights are being explained in the light of directive principles because the fundamental rights and directive principles are not opposed to each other, rather complementary to each other.
Fundamental Duties:
- Rights are duties are complementary to each other.
- We cannot imagine the existence of rights in the absence of duties.
- In Section 4 (a) of the constitution, 10 duties are added.
- By the 86th constitutional amendment (2002), amending article 51 (a) that it shall be the duty of the parents or the guardian that they provide opportunity of education to their children between the age of 6 and 14 years.
Criticism of Fundamental Duties:
- No provision of punishment for violation of fundamental duties has been made in our constitution, so they are not being followed properly.
- Fundamental duties are inspired by very high idealistic thoughts like following national ideals, safeguarding the rich heritage of our composite culture, following humanism, and developing scientific temper etc.
Important Dates and Events Given in the Chapter
RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 18 Important Terms
- Fundamental Rights : The rights that have been provided by the constitution to the citizens of India because of being essential to the overall development of an individual, are called fundamental rights. The state cannot interfere in these rights.
- Secularism : This is an ideology which doesn’t allow any discrimination on the basis of religion, belief or customs. It treats all the religions equally.
- Social Justice : Social justice means social equality. The society based on justice, where all the citizens get equal opportunities for their development. No citizen shall be discriminated on the basis of caste, religion, ethnicity, place of birth, gender etc.
- Citizenship : Citizenship is the state of being a member of a particular country and having rights because of it. A person is recognized under the custom or law as being a legal member of a sovereign state or belonging to a nation.
- Civil Rights : Civil rights are the rights that people have in a society to equal treatment and equal opportunities, whatever their caste, race, sex, or religion etc. In case of violation of these rights, a person can go to judiciary. State cannot interfere in these rights. These rights are protected by law.
- The Bahadur Sapru : He was a renowned legal luminary of India. His opinion was that the objective of fundamental rights in the constitution was to provide equality, justice, freedom, and security to the citizens of India. He served as a member for law affairs in the Viceroy’s Council (1920-23).
- Hari Vishnu Kamath : He was the member of the Indian Constituent Assembly. He opposed suspension of fundamental rights in peace time. He said that by making this provision in the constitution, we are establishing dictatorial state and police state.
- Keshawanand Bharati: He became famous in a case in 1973, known as Keshawannd Bharati case, related to fundamental rights.
- Golaknath : He became famous in a case related to fundamental rights in 1967. In this case, the judiciary declared fundamental rights supreme and unamendable by the Parliament.
- K. Subbarao : Ex-chief justice of India. He considered fundamental rights as the other term or name of traditional natural rights.