Directive Principles And Sustainable Development: Revisiting Constitutional Goals For Future Generations
- IJLLR Journal
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Sudhikrishna AS, Assistant Professor, Marian College, Kuttikkanam (Autonomous)
ABSTRACT
Constitutional Directives are certain obligations that every state has to follow while framing its laws and policies. In India, the Directive Principles of State Policies (DPSP) are the set of principles that guide state governance. Part IV of the Indian Constitution, from Articles Use 36 to 51, deals with the DPSP. These principles are intended to improve the socio-economic conditions of the citizens to improve the standard of living. One of the most important features of the DPSP is that they are not legally enforceable, so even though they act as a guideline for the state governance, still, even if the state is not implementing the DPSP, no one can take any legal action, which means each state has its discretionary power to implement the DPSP, and if they are hesitant to implement, no one can enforce its implementation legally. This will create an impact on the future as the circumstances that led to the development of DPSP at the time of drafting the constitution are not similar as compared to the present scenario; generations have evolved and their needs have changed, but still only certain DPSP has been implemented by the state uniformly, thus creating a dilemma among various people residing in different states, which will ultimately affect sustainable development. Through this article, we will analyse how the existing Articles related to DPSP in the Constitution of India help in achieving sustainable development and in what ways these articles need to be amended to satisfy the needs of future generations.
Keywords: Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), Indian Constitution, Part IV (Articles 36 to 51), Sustainable Development, Socio-economic justice, Non-enforceability, Constitutional directives, State governance.
