Apna Gyaan

Directive Principles of State Policy!!! 🇮🇳😊

It is a concept of government in which the state (defined in Article 36) plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens.

India, a welfare state provides equitable distribution of wealth and equal opportunities to its citizens. So, here we have Directive Principles of State Policies (DPSPs) enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

DPSPs focuses on the government’s responsibility for those who are unable to avail minimal provisions of a good life. So, according to this system, the welfare of its citizens is the responsibility of the state.

Directive Principles of State Policy

So, guys let’s discuss Part-IV of the Indian Constitution.

Part IV of the Indian Constitution enumerates Directive Principles of State Policy (from Articles 36 to 51). The idea of DPSPs is taken from the Irish Constitution of 1937. Though the Irish Constitution took this idea from the Spanish Constitution.

So, DPSPs includes the concept of a ‘welfare state’. Granville Austin has described the Directive Principles of State Policies and the Fundamental Rights as the ‘Conscience of Constitution‘.

Dr B R Ambedkar described these principles as ‘novel features‘ of the Indian Constitution. In the words of Dr B R Ambedkar,

The Directive Principles are like the instrument of instructions, which were issued to the Governor-General and to the Governors of the colonies of India by the British Government (Government of India Act, 1935). The Directive Principles is merely another name for the instrument of instructions. The only difference is that they are instructions to the legislature and the executive.

-Dr BR Ambedkar

Features of Directive Principles

1. The Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines to the central and state governments of India. The governments must keep these principles in mind while framing laws and policies.
2. The Directive Principles resemble the ‘Instrument of Instructions’ enumerated in the Government of India Act of 1935.
3. It is the duty of the central and state governments to apply these principles in making laws to establish a well-versed society in the country.
4. The main objective of these principles is to create social and economic conditions under which all the citizens can live a good life.
5. They aim at realising high ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as describe in the preamble to the constitution. In other words, it is to establish social and economic democracy in the country.
6. These provisions of the Constitution of India are non-justiciable. Unlike Fundamental Rights, DPSPs are not enforceable by the court of law. But these are the fundamental governing principles of the Country.
7. The Directive Principles, though non-justiciable in nature, help the courts in examining and determining the constitutional validity of a law.

So, this was an introduction of the Directive Principles. In the upcoming post, we shall discuss Socialist, Gandhian and Liberal Principles of DPSPs.

Thanks and Stay Civilised. 😊