DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY

The makers of our Constitution knew that independent India was going to face many challenges. Foremost among these was the challenge to bring about equality and well-being of all citizens. They also thought that certain policy direction was required for handling these problems. At the same time, the Constitution did not want future governments to be bound by certain policy decisions.

Therefore, some guidelines were incorporated in the Constitution but they were not made legally enforceable: this means that if a government did not implement a particular guideline, we cannot go to the court asking the court to instruct the government to implement that policy. Thus, these guidelines are ‘non-justiciable’ i.e., parts of the Constitution that cannot be enforced by the judiciary. Those who framed our Constitution thought that the moral force behind these guidelines would ensure that the government would take them seriously. Besides, they expected that the people would also hold the governments responsible for implementing these directives.

So, a separate list of policy guidelines is included in the Constitution. The list of these guidelines is called the Directive Principles of State Policy. What do the Directive Principles contain? The chapter on Directive Principles lists mainly three things: the goals and objectives that we as a society should adopt; certain rights that individuals should enjoy apart from the