Fundamental Duties under the Constitution of India

(The writer is a Senior Advocate of the Gauhati High Court)

In the present day and age we are well aware of our rights.Whenever any of our rights are violated, we approach the legal system for relief and remedy. The Constitution of India not only guarantees us certain rights but also bestows upon us certain duties towards the society and our country. Thus, the question arises as to how conscious we are about our duties. How often do we discuss about our duties towards the nation? Are we aware of our duties as much as we are aware of our rights?

The Constitution of India lays down various Fundamental Duties. Although the founding fathers of our Constitution did not consider it to be necessary to include a specific chapter on Fundamental Duties at the time of framing the constitution, the concept of Fundamental Duties were thereafter introduced in the Part IV-A of the Constitution of India by the 42nd Amendment as an attempt to reiterate the fact that the citizens have certain duties towards the state and the society.

The following Fundamental Duties were introduced by the 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 - Article 51-A - after receiving recommendations from the Swaran Singh Committee.

It shall be the duty of every citizen of India:

a. To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;

b. To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;

c. To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;

d. To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;

e. To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

f. To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

g. To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures;

h. To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

i. To safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

j. To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity, so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.

Subsequently, another duty was added by the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002:

k. Who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education of his child, or as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

The concept of Fundamental Duties has been taken from the Constitution of Russia. Duties are an ancient concept. The concept of duties has its origin in the Vedas and they are in the form of religious commands. Epics like Bhagawat Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata also enshrine duties as part of one's Dharma. The Right is considered ancillary to duty or the consequences of performing duty.

An individual is the fundamental organ of a state and each organ is required to work unitedly to achieve the means of a welfare State. An individual plays a vital role in a state and its welfare and is entitled to exercise their rights.

India is the largest democracy in the world. We primarily focus on the rights and not on duties. But duties are the counterpart of rights. Every right has a corresponding duty. The Supreme Court, in the case of AIIMS Students' Union vs AIIMS [(2002) 1 SCC 428], held that Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties should be given equal importance. In the said judgment, it was observed as follows:

"Fundamental Duties, as defined in Article 51-A, are not made enforceable by a writ of court just as the Fundamental Rights are, but it cannot be lost sight of that "duties" in Part-IV-A Article 51-A are prefixed by the same word "fundamental" which was prefixed by the founding fathers of the Constitution to "rights" in Part-III. Every citizen of India is fundamentally obligated to develop a scientific temper and humanism. He is fundamentally duty-bound to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievements. State is all the citizens placed together and hence though Article 51-A does not expressly cast any fundamental duty on the state, the fact remains that the duty of every citizen of India is the collective duty of the state. Any reservation, apart from being sustainable on the constitutional anvil, must also be reasonable to be permissible. In assessing the reasonability, one of the factors to be taken into consideration would be – whether the character and quantum of reservation would stall or accelerate achieving the ultimate goal of excellence enabling the nation constantly rising to higher levels. In the era of globalization, where the nation as a whole has to compete with other nations of the world so as to survive, excellence cannot be given an unreasonable go-by and certainly not compromised in its entirety. Fundamental Duties, though not enforceable by a writ of court, yet provide a valuable guide and aid to interpretation of constitutional and legal issues. In case of doubt or choice, people's wish as manifested through Article 51-A, can serve as a guide not only for resolving the issue but also for constructing or moulding the relief to be given by the courts. Constitutional enactment of fundamental duties, if it has to have any meaning, must be used by courts as a tool to tab, even a taboo, on State action drifting away from constitutional values."

Article 51 A(g) says that "it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life and to have compassion for living creatures". The Supreme Court in the case of MC Mehta vs Union of India [AIR 1992 SC 382], observed as follows:-

"We accept on the principle that through the medium of education awareness of the environment and its problems related to population should be taught as a compulsory subject. Learned Attorney-General pointed out to us that the Central Government is associated with education at the higher levels and University Grants Commission can monitor only the under graduate and post graduate studies. The rest of it, according to him, is a state subject. He has agreed that the University Grants Commission will take appropriate steps immediately to give effect to what we have said, i.e., requiring the Universities to prescribe a course on environment. They would consider the feasibility of making this a compulsory subject at every level in college education. So far as education up to the college level is concerned, we would require every State Government and every Education Board connected with education up to the matriculation stage or even intermediate colleges to immediately take steps to enforce compulsory education on environment in a graded way. This should be so done that in the next academic year there should be compliance of this requirement."

The Fundamental Duties are not themselves enforceable in courts nor are their violations punishable as such. If a court before which a fundamental right is sought to be enforced has to read all parts of the Constitution, it may refuse to enforce the Fundamental Right at the instance of an individual who has patently violated any of the duties mentioned in the Article 51-A of the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court held that the Fundamental Rights have to be read with Fundamental Duties and the Directive Principle of the State Policy and they cannot be read in isolation. It is appropriate to mention that, merely because the fundamental duties are not backed by sanction for disobedience, it does not mean it has no importance. It is still regarded a rule of law that is expected to be followed by every citizen. This position was acknowledged by the Supreme Court in various judgments.

Justice Kurian Joseph in his article, "My Fundamental Duties under the Constitution of India", says:

"Fundamental Duties too are like any rules of law that must be observed by all. Their significance is not diminished by the fact that there is no punishment prescribed for not following them. Fundamental Duties should be treated as constitutional values that must be propagated by all citizens.

The idea behind implementing Fundamental Duties of citizens was to serve a useful purpose. In particular, it is impossible for a democratic polity to ever succeed where the citizens are not willing to be active participants in the process of governance by assuming responsibilities and discharging citizenship duties. Therefore, the most important task before us is to reconcile the claims of the individual citizen and those of the civic society. To achieve this, it is required to orient the citizen to be conscious of his social and citizenship responsibilities and the society should be shaped in such a way that we all show our utmost respect to the inalienable rights of ourfellow citizens. Awareness of our citizenship duties is as important as awareness of our rights. Thus, the Fundamental Duties act as the foundation of human dignity and national character. Those duties actually constitute the conscience of our Constitution."

In his Constitution Day address in the year 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the importance of Constitutional Duties. The then Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu, called for Fundamental Duties to be included in the school curriculum and the list of duties to be displayed at educational institutions and other public places. The former Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, writing in The Indian Express, called for citizen to remember their Fundamental Duties just as they remember their Fundamental Rights.

As law-abiding and responsible citizens of the country, we should always be conscious of our duties and we should never forget to perform them. The entire socio-political affairs of the Indian civilization have been based on the performance of duties. A country's progress and prosperity depends highly on the acts of a duty-bound citizen. A person cannot be said to be a responsible citizen if he or she does not perform his or her duties towards the nation. A responsible citizen contributes greatly towards the progress and development of a country by being aware of his or her rights as well as duties and by bringing the right balance between rights and duties. Therefore, let us come together and pledge that we shall perform our duties as dedicatedly as we demand our rights.