This is transcript of video lectures from the series of [[15 Video Lectures on Indian Constitution]] **Navigate to other lectures in this series:** [[Introduction to Indian Constitution]] | [[Constituent Assembly Debates]] | [[Preamble of Indian Constitution]] | [[Citizenship in India]] | [[Right to Equality]] | [[Reservation Policies and Indian Constitution]] | [[Freedom of Speech & Expression]] | [[Right to Life and Personal Liberty]] | [[Freedom of Religion]] | [[Rights of Minorities]] | [[Directive Principles]] | [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles & Fundamental Duties’ Relationship]] | [[Union Executive Powers & Position of President & Prime Minister]] | [[Indian Judiciary]] | [[Constitutional Amendments & the Basic Structure Theory]] # Chapter 11 - Lecture 11 By Prof. (Dr.) Faizan Mustafa Namashkar, welcome to online course on Indian Constitution which is being offered by Nal sir University of Law in collaboration with Ministry of Law and Justice Government of India. In the last lecture we talked about rights of the minorities. Today we are going to talk about directive principles. This is part four of Indian Constitution. So today we will talk about part four of Indian Constitution which incorporates directive principles of state policy. Let us first try to understand little bit theory of human rights. Human rights as you know are the basic natural rights which every human being is entitled to by virtue of his birth as a human being. During Cold War the entire word got divided into two groups and therefore human rights also got divided into the first generation and second generation rights. The civil and political rights were called first generation rights, socio-economic and cultural rights were called second generation rights. This was an artificial classification and it damaged the human rights movement. What really happened was this that the Western liberal democracies emphasized civil and political rights and the socialist countries gave more importance to the socio-economic rights. Accordingly the liberal West gave liberty and did not bother much about right to food and the socialist East provided food but denied civil liberties to its citizens. Subsequently right to environment was termed as third generation right. After the end of Cold War United Nations Human Rights Conference was held in Vienna in 1994 which resolved that all human rights are universal, indivisible and inelienable. Therefore whether rights are part of fundamental rights or they are part of directive principles they are equally important. In India Tej Bahadur Sapru committee submitted a report in 1941 that suggested that we should have some justifiable rights and some non justifiable rights. This distinction later on led to the inclusion of civil and political rights in the fundamental rights chapter and socio-economic rights under the directive principles. So what are directive principles? If fundamental rights in India were borrowed from United States, directive principles were taken from the Irish constitution. Article 37 says directive principles of chapter 4 of Indian constitution shall not be enforceable by any code. This was the influence of the Sapru committee. So directive principles like fundamental rights are not enforceable by any code. But the principles mentioned in the directive principles are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country. Moreover it shall be the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws. Dr. B. Arambhayatkar called directive principles as no well feature of Indian constitution. Let us just look at various articles in directive principles and what they provide for. So article 36 says that the meaning of state which is given in article 12 shall be the same even for this chapter, even for directive principles. Article 37 talks of applications of principles given in this part, that is part 4. And here it says that directive principles are not just issueable but they are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country. Article 39 tells us some basic principles of policies to be followed by the state. Article 39A talks of equal justice and freely delayed article 40 organization of village panchayats, Gandhian influence on Indian constitution. Article 41 talks of right to work, to education, to public assistance in certain cases. Article 42 mentions provision for the just and human conditions of work and maternity leave. Article 43 talks of living wages for workers. Article 43A makes a provision for the participation of workers in the management of industries. Article 43B talks of promotion of cooperative societies. Article 44 talks of uniform civil code. Article 45 makes a provision for the early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years. Article 46 talks of promotion of educational and economic interests of Shadi ul Khaz, Shadi ul Tribes and other weaker sections. Article 47 talks of duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. Article 48 talks of organization of agriculture and animal husbandry. Article 48 speaks of protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife. Article 49 talks of protection of monuments and places and objects of national importance. Article 50 speaks of separation of judiciary from the executive. An article 51 talks of promotion of international peace and security. In this lecture, we won't be able to talk about each and every directive principle. But we will make an effort to understand the essential message of the directive principles. Some of the directive principles we have already talked at length, such as Article 46 in our lecture on reservation and Article 44 in our lecture on freedom of religion. If you look at all these articles, it becomes clear that directive principles are fundamentally based on socialistic, Gandhian and liberal principles. So what is the significance of directive principles? Article 37 to 51 contain what are termed as obligations of the state. Directive principles therefore are telling us what are the duties of the state. Dr. Birambitkar himself explained the idea of directive principles. He said and I quote, it is no use giving a fixed rigid form to something which is not rigid, which is fundamentally changing and must having regard to the circumstances and the times keep on changing. It is therefore no use saying the directive principles have no value in my judgment. The directive principles have a great value for they lay down our ideal is economic democracy. Birambitkar is trying to say that we do not want mere political democracy. We intend to achieve economic democracy. Preamble of the constitution itself promise justice, social and economic. And directive principles are the means to achieve these ideas. Therefore fundamental rights promote political democracy to which Ambedkar made a reference. And directive principles are aimed at achieving economic democracy. Dr. Birambitkar went on to say that because we did not want merely a parliamentary form of government to be instituted through the various mechanisms provided in the constitution without any direction as to our economic ideal or as to what our social order ought to be. We deliberately included the directive principles in our constitution. Unquote. Article 38 clause 1 tells us the kind of social order we want to achieve in India. It says the state shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may. A social order in which justice, economic, social and political shall inform all the institutions of the national life. The mandate, the duty and the obligation of the state is mentioned here. What do we want to achieve welfare of the people? How can we achieve welfare by securing and protecting effectively a social order in which justice, social, economic and political shall inform all the institutions of our national life. The Article 38 clause 2 says the state's shell in particular is strive to minimize the inequalities in income and endeavor to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations. Very clearly Article 38 clause 2 is saying that eliminating the inequalities in income, the rich should not get richer and poor should not become poorer. We will minimize inequalities in income and eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities. The Article 39 tells us certain basic fundamental principles which our state must follow. These are the policy guidelines by the constitution. The state's shell in particular directs is policy towards securing that citizens, men and women equally have the right to an adequate means of livelihood that the ownership and control of material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserv the common good that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women. The health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age or strength. The children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment. This is the charter of economic policies of the state. No concentration of wealth. Material resources of the nation are to be so distributed they subserv the common good in a state of Bihar versus Kameshwarsi. Supreme court said land reforms were aimed at reducing concentration of wealth and land in few hands. So, Zamidari is ought to be abolished. How much land one person, one family can have is to be decided in Kesamanan and the Bharati judgment. Supreme court said article 39 is the constitutional mandate of how to develop a welfare state and an egalitarian society and how to achieve dignity of the individual. What are the provisions of the conditions of work and wages? Article 42 says the state shall make provision for securing just and human conditions of work and make provision for the maternity relief. Number of labor laws were enacted factory is act industrial dispute sector minimum wages act workman compensation act employees insurance act. Maternity relief act was passed in 1961. The central government in 2017 made an amendment to the maternity relief act which now gives 26 weeks maternity relief for the first two pregnancies. Article 43 provides for living wages. There are three kinds of wages minimum wage. It is the lowest wage which is just sufficient for the bare subsistence of workers. The second type is fair wage which is sufficient for food shelter, clothing and education of children. The constitutional ideal is living wage. Living wage would be sufficient for a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities for our workers. In 2020 central government consolidated all these different 44 labor laws and enacted four labor codes. What amendments have so far been made to the directive principles? Let us talk of major amendments. 42nd amendment inserted following new articles. Article 39A which says that the state shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on the basis of equal opportunity and shall in particular provide free legal aid by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. If the legal system is only for the rich and excludes poor, if justice is too expensive, and it is beyond the reach of the poor, then this is no justice. Article 39A says that the state shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice. Promote justice on the basis of equal opportunity and in particular, state shall provide free legal aid. Accordingly legal services authority is act was passed in 1987. Article 43A made provision for the workers participation in the management of industries. Article 48A makes a provision for the protection of in-moment and safeguarding a forest and wildlife. Subsequently, in-moment protection act 1986 was passed. 86th amendment in 2002 substituted article 45 which had originally provided for the free and compulsory education for all children till 14 years of age. The new provision provides it only until six years of age. But article 21A was inserted by the 86th amendment that has made free and compulsory education between six to 14 years as fundamental right and finally right to education act was passed in 2009. What did we learn today? Directive principles are non-justishable. You cannot go to the court of law if state is not implementing directive principles. These principles were borrowed from the Irish constitution. Directive principles are the positive obligations of the state. In the next lecture, we would discuss fundamental duties. Relationship between fundamental rights and directive principles and fundamental duties. Thank you very much. See you in the next lecture. Namaskar. ---  *Disclaimer: I am not asserting any claim over this content. The content is entirely from the Ministry of Law & Justice and NALSAR University of Law's joint online course on the Indian Constitution. My effort has been to make the transcript available for people like myself who prefer to read or quote it rather than to listen. This is part of my public self-archiving project. For more details, see [notes.daktre.com](https://notes.daktre.com) or [daktre.com](https://daktre.com).* **Navigate to other lectures:** [[Introduction to Indian Constitution]] | [[Constituent Assembly Debates]] | [[Preamble of Indian Constitution]] | [[Citizenship in India]] | [[Right to Equality]] | [[Reservation Policies and Indian Constitution]] | [[Freedom of Speech & Expression]] | [[Right to Life and Personal Liberty]] | [[Freedom of Religion]] | [[Rights of Minorities]] | [[Directive Principles]] | [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles & Fundamental Duties’ Relationship]] | [[Union Executive Powers & Position of President & Prime Minister]] | [[Indian Judiciary]] | [[Constitutional Amendments & the Basic Structure Theory]] Last updated: 2026-02-21 22:44