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Part IV in depth: the Directive Principles and how they are carried out

Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties · Part 1 / 1 · Fact-checked on 18 October 2026 · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

Part IV of the Constitution: the non-justiciable but fundamental character of the Directive Principles, their socialist, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual groups, the principles added by later amendments, directions outside Part IV, the laws and schemes that carry them out and how courts use them.

Part III of the Constitution tells the State what it must not do: it must not deny equality or curb free speech without reason. Part IV, the Directive Principles of State Policy, tells the State what it should work towards: a society where wealth is not concentrated, workers are paid fairly, children are educated and the weak are protected. This chapter has two parts. This first part studies Part IV itself: its legal nature, the three groups into which its principles are usually sorted, the principles added later, the directions found outside Part IV and the laws and schemes that have carried them out. Part 2 takes up the tension between these principles and the Fundamental Rights, and then the Fundamental Duties.

Part IV runs from Article 36 to Article 51. Article 36 gives 'the State' the same meaning as in Article 12, covering governments, legislatures and local and other authorities. Article 37 sets out their legal character: 'The provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforced by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.' They are therefore non-justiciable: no citizen can go to court to force the State to provide, say, a living wage. The framers chose this because a newly independent and poor country could not promise in court what it could not yet pay for. The idea came from the Irish Constitution, and in the Constituent Assembly Dr B.R. Ambedkar likened the principles to the Instrument of Instructions given to Governors under the Government of India Act, 1935, now addressed to whichever government the people elect.

The Constitution does not group the principles, but students commonly sort them into three families by the ideas behind them: socialist, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual. The socialist family aims at economic Justice. Article 38 asks the State to secure a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shapes every institution of national life, and Article 38(2), added by the 44th Amendment, asks it to minimise inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities. Article 39 then lists concrete goals: an adequate means of livelihood for men and women equally; ownership and control of the community's material resources distributed to serve the common good; an economic system that does not concentrate wealth and the means of production to the common detriment; equal pay for equal work for men and women; protection of the health of workers and of children from abuse; and, in clause (f), opportunities for children to grow in freedom and dignity.

The socialist family continues with the principles on work and welfare. Article 39A, added by the 42nd Amendment, asks the State to ensure that the legal system promotes justice on the basis of equal opportunity and to provide free legal aid, so that no citizen is denied justice because of economic or other disabilities. Article 41 asks the State, within the limits of its economic capacity, to secure the right to work, to education and to public assistance in unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement. Article 42 calls for just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief. Article 43 asks for a living wage and a decent standard of life for all workers, and Article 43A, also from the 42nd Amendment, for workers' participation in the management of industries. Article 47 makes raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living, and improving public health, among the State's primary duties. The words 'within the limits of its economic capacity' in Article 41 show why such goals were left to policy rather than to courts.

The Gandhian family reflects the programme of the national movement and Gandhi's vision of a village-centred India. Article 40 asks the State to organise village panchayats and give them the powers they need to work as units of self-government; the 73rd Amendment of 1992 later turned this direction into a constitutional system of Panchayati Raj. Article 43 asks the State to promote cottage industries in rural areas on an individual or co-operative basis, and Article 43B, added by the 97th Amendment (2011), to promote the voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies. Article 46 asks the State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, in particular the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and to protect them from social injustice and exploitation. Article 47 asks it to bring about prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs injurious to health, except for medicinal purposes. Article 48 asks it to prohibit the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle.

The liberal-intellectual family reflects the outlook of a modern, rational state. Article 44 asks the State to endeavour to secure for citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India, that is, one set of civil laws on marriage, divorce, succession and adoption in place of separate personal laws. Article 45, in its present form from the 86th Amendment (2002), asks the State to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete six years of age. Article 48 asks the State to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and to improve breeds. Article 48A, added by the 42nd Amendment, asks it to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife. Article 49 asks it to protect monuments and places of artistic or historic interest declared by Parliament to be of national importance. Article 50 asks it to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State. Article 51 asks it to promote international peace and security, honourable relations between nations, respect for international law and the settlement of disputes by arbitration.

Part IV has not stood still; several Amendment Acts have added to it. The 42nd Amendment (1976) reworded Article 39(f) and added three new Articles: 39A on equal justice and free legal aid, 43A on workers' participation in management and 48A on the environment, forests and wildlife. The 44th Amendment (1978) added clause (2) to Article 38, on reducing inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities. The 86th Amendment (2002) made elementary education for children aged six to fourteen a Fundamental Right under Article 21A and, at the same time, rewrote Article 45 so that it now speaks of early childhood care and education up to the age of six. The 97th Amendment (2011) added Article 43B on co-operative societies, alongside a right to form co-operatives in Article 19(1)(c) and a new Part IXB. The pattern is worth noticing: a principle can move from Part IV into Part III, as education did, when the country feels able to guarantee it.

Not every direction to the State sits in Part IV. Three others, placed elsewhere in the Constitution, are also non-justiciable but are commonly tested alongside the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 335 says that the claims of members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, in making appointments to services and posts under the Union or a State. Article 350A asks every State and every local authority to endeavour to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children of linguistic minority groups. Article 351 makes it the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language and develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of India's composite culture. So a statement placing Article 350A in Part IV is wrong: it is a direction, but it sits in Part XVII.

Because the principles cannot be enforced in court, they come alive only through laws and schemes. The land reform laws that abolished intermediaries and fixed ceilings on landholdings served Article 39(b) and (c). Minimum wage and equal pay laws serve Articles 43 and 39(d), and the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 serves Article 42. The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, which set up legal services authorities and Lok Adalats, carries out Article 39A. The 73rd Amendment gave Panchayati Raj constitutional status under Article 40. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 gives a statutory guarantee of wage employment to rural households, a step towards the right to work in Article 41, and the National Food Security Act, 2013 serves Article 47. The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 serve Article 48A; the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 serves Article 49; and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 separated judicial magistrates from the executive, as Article 50 asks.

Non-justiciable does not mean irrelevant in court. Judges regularly read the principles into the meaning of the Fundamental Rights, especially the right to life in Article 21. In Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar (1979), dealing with undertrial prisoners who had spent years in jail, the Supreme Court drew on Article 39A and held that free legal aid and a speedy trial are part of the right to life and personal liberty. In J.P. Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993), the Court read Article 21 together with the principles on education and held that children have a right to free education until they complete fourteen years of age; the 86th Amendment later wrote this into Article 21A. Courts also use the principles in judging whether a restriction on a right is reasonable, so the principles shape outcomes indirectly even though no one can sue the State merely for ignoring them.

Part IV is best read as a programme rather than a code. Article 37 makes it non-justiciable yet fundamental to governance; its three families set out economic welfare, village self-government and a modern state; amendments keep adding to it; laws and schemes carry it out; and courts use it to give depth to the Fundamental Rights. One hard question remains: what happens when a law serving a Directive Principles of State Policy goal collides with a Fundamental Right? That question, and the Fundamental Duties, are the subject of Part 2.

Exam traps

• Directive Principles are non-justiciable (Article 37) but are still 'fundamental in the governance of the country'; do not call them merely advisory.
• The idea of Directive Principles came from the Irish Constitution; the idea of Fundamental Duties is traced to the former USSR.
• Article 39A (free legal aid), 43A (workers in management) and 48A (environment) were added by the 42nd Amendment; 38(2) by the 44th; 43B by the 97th.
• Article 45 now speaks of early childhood care and education up to six years; education for children of six to fourteen is the Fundamental Right in Article 21A.
• Equal pay for equal work for men and women is in Article 39(d), a Directive Principle, not a Fundamental Right in Part III.
• Separation of the judiciary from the executive is Article 50; protection of monuments is Article 49; international peace is Article 51.
• Articles 335, 350A and 351 are directions outside Part IV; a statement placing them in Part IV is wrong.
• The socialist, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual grouping is a study device; the Constitution itself does not classify the principles.

Recap

• Part IV, Articles 36–51; 'State' as in Article 12; Article 37: not enforceable by any court, yet fundamental in governance.
• Source: the Irish Constitution; compared by Dr Ambedkar to the Instrument of Instructions under the Government of India Act, 1935.
• Socialist: Articles 38, 39 (a)–(f), 39A, 41, 42, 43, 43A, 47; aims at economic justice and welfare.
• Gandhian: Articles 40, 43 (cottage industries), 43B, 46, 47 (prohibition), 48 (cattle).
• Liberal-intellectual: Articles 44 (Uniform Civil Code), 45, 48 (scientific agriculture), 48A, 49, 50, 51.
• Later additions: 42nd (39(f) reworded, 39A, 43A, 48A), 44th (38(2)), 86th (new Article 45 with 21A), 97th (43B).
• Directions outside Part IV: Article 335 (services), 350A (mother tongue at primary stage), 351 (Hindi).
• Carried out through laws: land reforms, Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, 73rd Amendment, MGNREGA 2005, NFSA 2013, environment laws, CrPC 1973.
• Courts read the principles into Article 21: Hussainara Khatoon (1979) on legal aid and speedy trial; Unni Krishnan (1993) on education.

Practice questions

Sources

• Constitution of India: Articles 12, 19(1)(c), 21, 21A, 36–51, 335, 350A and 351; Parts IXB and XVII — https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
• Constitution (Forty-second, Forty-fourth, Seventy-third, Eighty-sixth and Ninety-seventh Amendment) Acts; Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987; Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958; Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005; National Food Security Act, 2013 — https://www.indiacode.nic.in
• Constituent Assembly Debates (Dr B.R. Ambedkar on the Directive Principles) — https://eparlib.nic.in
• Supreme Court of India: Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar (1979); J.P. Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993) — https://digiscr.sci.gov.in