Directive Principles Of State Policy: Coating Of Fundamental Rights And Constructs Of Human Rights Jurisprudence
Ms Kanchan Lavania, Assistant Professor, Vivekananda School of Law and Legal Studies (VSLLS), Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS), Delhi
ABSTRACT
Although the Constitution of India was written between 1946 and 1949, the philosophy of the constitution and constitutionalism took shape during national movement for independence which started in 1885 and ended in 1947. The linkage of constitution with the national movement is an important source of legitimacy of the constitution1. It was not only a law but in the words of Granville Austin, it is a social document.2 The Indian leaders did not define Independence merely as the end of colonial rule but as the beginning of a new social order where a common Indian would be emancipated from poverty, ignorance, and social and economic tyranny. The Constitution they made was not a mere imitation of other Constitutions. They made a conscious choice of those provisions which they had to be found useful in India in the light of their own experience during colonial rule. The difference between the Indian Constitution and other Constitutions is not only a physical difference but the real difference is in the character. It not merely provides an apparatus of governance but it is also futuristic in envisioning what social and economic transformation India would undergo. However, today we have failed to achieve the pious goal of socio- economic justice as enunciated in the Preamble of the Constitution mainly due to the non-implementation of certain Directive Principles of State Policy. The study of Part IV has been only limited to their relativity and comparison with Fundamental Rights instead having a comprehensive intellectual vision about Directive Principles which has not taken us forward in achieving the complete justice.
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