TOPIC: FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES

SUBMITTED TO: DR. VAGISH UPADHYAY

SUBMITTED BY: KIRTIMA PANDEY

ENROLLMENT NO.: 21FLUCDDN01005
SUBMISSION DATE: 17TH JANUARY
ICFAI LAW SCHOOL
THE ICFAI UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank our tort Dr. Vagish
Upadhyay who guided us in doing this project. She provided us with
invaluable advice and helped us in difficult periods. Her motivation
and help contributed tremendously to the successful completion of
the project.

Besides, we would like to thank all the teachers who helped us by

giving us advice and providing the equipment which we needed.

Also, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support.
Without that support we couldn’t have succeeded in completing this
project.

At last, but not in least, we would like to thank everyone who helped
and motivated us to work on this project.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
NEED FOR FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES
SOURCE OF FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES
ENFORCEMENT OF DUTIES
PREVENTION OF INSULTS TO NATIONAL HONOUR ACT,1971
CASE LAWS
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Introduction
Our country India has the lengthiest written constitution in the world. In this,
the rights of every person are kept in mind. However, the three organs of the
State cannot make this country self-reliant until they get the proper support
from the citizens as well. So there are certain fundamental duties which are
expected from the citizens to be carried out. In this article, we will discuss the
Fundamental Duties which are expected to be carried out by the citizens of our
country. It is a moral obligation on the citizens to maintain the feeling of
patriotism and unity among all the citizens of the country.

I remember an instance where a popular celebrity was found to breach the

fundamental duty. There was a lady wearing a saree during the commentary of
the live cricket match and that saree had a reflection of tricolour in it. In this
case, the Indian flag seemed to touch the feet of that anchor. She was brutally
criticized by various peoples and in the court, as this was a case of breach of
fundamental duty so no legal action can be further taken against that anchor.

This was an instance of the year 2007 when I was still a child and knowing
nothing about the Fundamental Duties. However, today I can clearly say that it
was a breach of fundamental duty. Fundamental Duties are applied only to the
citizens of the country, not to any organ of the state.

Need for Fundamental Duties

It is important to understand that no democratic system could ever succeed if
the citizens are not willing to participate actively by discharging their duties
which are expected to be done by them.

Our Constitution has provided us with various rights and expects us to perform
certain duties as a return. Article 51(A) talks about these Fundamental Duties
and has 11 fundamental duties that are expected to be performed by the
citizens (there were 10 earlier and 11th was added later by the 86th
amendment). First, we will discuss these 11 fundamental duties and then we
can move on to the next topic whether it is needed or not.
 • We need to follow our Constitution and should respect our national
flag and national anthem.
• Should follow the ideals of the freedom struggle.
• Protect the sovereignty and integrity of our nation.
• Protect our nation and provide national services when required.
• Should have the spirit of a common brotherhood.
• Preserve the culture of our country.
• Protect the environment of our country.
• Generate scientific rationale for every thought.
• To protect public property.
• Strive for excellence.
• It is the duty of every parent to send their children between 6-14
years to school.
From these fundamental duties, one can easily understand the need for the
fundamental duty in our constitution. It is required to protect the sovereignty
of our nation. To maintain the unity and integrity of our nation. Rights and
duties go hand in hand and cannot be separated at any cost. Fundamental
duties and fundamental rights are two sides of a coin which we know that it
can’t be separated. Also, it is found as the need of the hour to introduce
fundamental duties in our constitution.

• Maintain the Sovereign Nature of State: The main aim of

the insertion of fundamental duties was to maintain the sovereign
nature of our state. Although these are not legally enforced then also
provide some kind of sovereign power to our state.

• To maintain Unity and Integrity of the nation: In the

current scenario, we can see that people are often talking about the
term “intolerance”. They are relating intolerance with unity.
According to them if the people become intolerant then the
compatibility with other people will be affected and ultimately the
unity among different people will be affected terribly. Our
Fundamental Duties help in developing tolerance among the citizens
and ultimately help in developing the feeling of unity and integrity
among the citizens of our country.
 • In the interpretation of different statues which are
made by the legislature: The Fundamental Duties help in the
interpretation of the law/ statues made by the legislature. It is held in
many cases that the need for Fundamental Duties in interpreting the
Fundamental Right is pivotal. In the case of Mohan Kumar Singhania
v. Union of India the court held that statues made according
to Article 51(A) of our Constitution are valid. Thus, from this, we can
clearly see that Fundamental Duties help in interpreting the
constitutional provision.

• In order to create a balance between the claims of

the individual citizen and those of the civil society: A
report was submitted by a committee led by late Justice J.S. Verma in
the year 1999. The need for and importance of Fundamental Duties
(especially under Article 51A) was explained by this committee. It can
be found in recommendation nos 3.38.1 and 3.38.2 of the report.
According to this committee, it is important to create a balance
between the expectations of individual citizens and to create a civil
society. To achieve this goal, it becomes important to orient the
citizens of our country to be aware of their social and citizenship
responsibility. And by doing this we will ultimately end up by shaping
the civil society (By term ‘civil society’, we mean that a society where
all become concerned and considerate of the rights of fellow citizens).

• Needed for the current situation: When our Constitution

was drafted by our Constitution makers, they found that they didn’t
need to insert the fundamental duty in our constitution. But as time
passes the need and importance of Fundamental Duty was felt that is
why they were inserted later by 42nd Amendment in our
Constitution. Earlier the feeling of patriotism, harmony, feeling to
promote brotherhood, secularism was inherent and there was no
need to put any moral or legal obligation on the citizen to the same.
The feeling of serving the country and defending the country at any
cost was there among the citizens of the country. The people were
willing to protect the rich heritage of Indian culture.
However, as time passed people were lacking these qualities. Earlier the above
qualities were taught by the family and also by the teachers in school and
colleges. But with the passage of time, all the people become so busy in their
life that they forget to inculcate these values among themselves. Those
qualities which were once an integral part of the life of the citizens of India
were found to be enforced in the form of Fundamental Duties.

In Chandra Bhavan Boarding and Lodging Bangalore v. State of Mysore And

Another, the Supreme Court held that it is not possible for our constitution to
protect all the rights of citizens without assigning certain duties to its citizens.
However, this decision was taken before the insertion of fundamental duties in
the Indian Constitution. It clearly explains the need for fundamental duties for
making a welfare society.

Source of Fundamental Duties

Nowadays we can clearly see that people will start protesting and how often it
becomes violent. There are many instances where any protest became violent
and people start vandalizing public property and start disrespecting the
government. Here citizens go beyond the line and often forget their moral duty
towards the nation. There was a similar condition in our country during the
National Emergency of 1976 where the then ruling party of our country i.e.,
Indian National Congress formed the Sardar Swaran Singh Committee.

The main purpose of this committee was to suggest the amendment in the
Constitution of India (mainly for the recommendations of fundamental duties).
This committee suggested that the citizens should know that for the
enjoyment of their rights they also have some duties and they should be
abided by those duties. This committee recommended 8 points of fundamental
duties. These were as follows:

1. To respect the constitution of our country.

2. To uphold the sovereignty and maintain unity and integrity of the
nation.
3. To respect the democratic institutions.
4. To protect our country and provide national services when asked to
do so.
5. Affirm communalism in any form.
6. To promote the common good of people and cooperate in the
implementation of the Directive Principle of State Policy.
7. To safeguard public property.
 8. Pay taxes according to rules and regulations.
However, all of the recommendations were not accepted and some further
changes were made to the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee
and Fundamental Duties were finally inserted by the 42nd amendment in the
Indian Constitution in the year 1976. However, initially, there were only ten
fundamental duties and the 11th duty was added later by the 86th
amendment in 2002.

Many countries in this world have the fundamental duty mentioned in their
constitution. For example, Articles 43-45 of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam talks about the duties of citizens towards the nation. Similarly, Article
194 of The Netherlands also mentions about the same. Japan has also
mentioned the fundamental duty of the residents of the country. The idea of
Fundamental Duties which has been mentioned in our constitution is basically
taken from the constitution of Russia (then USSR). These fundamental duties
are mentioned in Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the USSR. The concept of
Fundamental Duties have also been discussed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and also in the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.

Enforcement of Duties
Directive Principle of State Policy (which is given in Chapter IV of the Indian
Constitution) and Fundamental Duties needs to be read together. Both have a
moral obligation on the state and citizens respectively.

Fundamental Duties do not have any legal devour for its violation. There are six
positive duties which are expected to be done by the citizens of our country
and there are five negative duties which are not expected to be carried out by
the citizens. There is no legal enforceability for its breach, it is because of the
nature of the Fundamental Duties. We can clearly understand that it is
practically impossible to enforce these duties.

It is important to know that Fundamental Duties are only enforceable for the
citizens holding public offices. It is possible by way of departmental rules of
conduct and by making suitable legislation. There are appropriate sanctions for
the breach of Fundamental Duties in Public Offices.
There are many places in India where a person holding public office can be
barred from departmental promotions, also their increment can be refused. An
officer who takes part in strikes and organized a rally against the institution can
be made to give up his salary for that day.

CASES

M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1988 SCR (2) 530

The Fundamental Duty, given in Article 51 A(g) of the Indian Constitution
clearly mentions the duty of the citizen to protect the environment. According
to this article, it is the duty of every citizen to protect and preserve the natural
environment (natural environment includes forest, rivers, lakes, and wildlife). A
healthy environment is an essential element of the welfare of any society.

In the case of M.C. Mehta v. Union of India Article 51(g) was enforced by the
Supreme Court. In this case, 274.50 million litres of sewage water were being
discharged into the river Ganga on a daily basis. This case is about the city of
Kanpur, which is the biggest city on the bank of river Ganga. Here water
pollution was to a great extent that’s why the petitioner filed a petition in the
Supreme Court. Here Apex Court of the country found that Municipal bodies
and industries in Kanpur were the main reason for polluting the river.
Therefore, judgment was taken against Kanpur Nagar Mahapalika. In this case,
Nagar Mahapalika and Municipal Boards were held liable because it is their
responsibility to maintain and protect the environment in the areas of Kanpur.

Further here the Apex Court held that as there are many grave consequences
of water and air pollution and also as there is a need to protect and improve
the natural environment it became a moral obligation on the part of the
government to ensure the protection of the environment. Also, it is one of the
fundamental duties which is given in our constitution which makes a moral
obligation on the part of the citizens as well to ensure the protection of the
environment. The Supreme Court held that it is the duty of the Central
Government to direct all the educational institutions of our country to teach
and train citizens about the protection and improvement of the environment
for at least one hour a week.
Further Supreme Court held that the Central Government needs to get the
textbook written for the same purpose. These textbooks would be further
distributed among all educational institutions of our country. There should be
training for teachers who are going to give such educational teaching to
children.

Aruna Roy v. Union of India, AIR 2002 SC 3176

In the very famous case of Aruna Roy v. Union of India PIL was filed in the
Supreme Court. It has been contended that the National Curriculum
Framework for School Education (NCFSE) which was published by NCERT is
against the constitutional mandate, anti-secular and without consultation with
Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) and therefore it needed to be
quashed. The implementation of NCFSE was challenged as it did not get the
approval of CABE. Also, NCFSE was found to be against the constitution as it
violated the basic principle of secularism.

However, the petition was cancelled as the Supreme Court did not find any
reason to cancel the framework (NCFSE). What is given in our constitution is
that students should be taught that every religion is common/ equal?
Further Article 51A (e) clearly explains this condition. According to this
fundamental duty, it is the duty of the citizen to promote harmony and
brotherhood among the people of a different religion. And in order to achieve
these universal values like truth, right conduct, love, and peace should be the
base of education.

Government of India v. George Philip, AIR 2007 SC 705

In this very famous case of Government of India v. George Philip, the purpose
of compulsory retirement was challenged by the respondent. The respondent
who was working in BARC was granted two years left at the starting of his
service by the department. It was given to him to carry out advanced research
training. After many reminders, the petitioner overstayed in the foreign and an
inquiry was constituted for the same purpose and charge against him was
proven. He was allowed (decision of the High Court) to join his service but no
wages were decided to be given to him for those days which he was not able
to attend the service. But the Supreme Court overruled this decision of the
High Court. The reasoning given by the Supreme Court behind its decision was
that the earlier decision i.e., the decision of the High Court was against Article
51A(j).

Article 51A(j) clearly says that it is the duty of one to always strive towards
excellence in all spheres of life of an individual and it also talks about the
collective activity so that the nation keeps rising higher in an endeavour and
this cannot be achieved until the employees maintain the discipline.
Conclusion
At last, we can conclude that in this article we have come to know about every
aspect of Fundamental Duties and by reading every aspect of it we can clearly
understand the need and importance of Fundamental Duty. It was added in
our constitution as our government realized that a civil society (discussed
earlier in this article) cannot be made by the state only.

The citizens of our country need to play a vital role in achieving the basic aim
of our constitution. They can do this by following their duties towards the
nation as mentioned in Article 51A of our Constitution.

Also, one cannot ask for a right if one is not doing the duty assigned to them.
References
1. SCC Online.
2. D.D. Basu -” Constitution of India”
3. https://kjablr.kar.nic.in/sites/kjablr.kar.nic.in/files/05.%20Fundament
al%20Duties.pdf
4. https://blog.ipleaders.in/national-anthem-shyam-narayan-chouksey-
case/