Fundamental Duties in India - Article 51A | General Awareness & Knowledge - DSSSB TGT/PGT/PRT PDF Download

INTRODUCTION
42nd Amendment Act of 1976 added 10 Fundamental Duties to the Indian Constitution. 86th Amendment Act 2002 later added 11th Fundamental Duty to the list. Swaran Singh Committee in 1976 recommended Fundamental Duties, the necessity of which was felt during the internal emergency of 1975-77.

The Fundamental Duties are dealt with Article 51A under Part-IV A of the Indian Constitution. The topic is important for IAS Exam as questions are recurring in all its three stages- Prelims, Mains and Interview.

Eleven Fundamental Duties in India
The fundamental duties which were added by the 42nd Amendment Act of the Constitution in 1976, in addition to creating and promoting culture, also strengthen the hands of the legislature in enforcing these duties vis-a-vis the fundamental rights.

The list of 11 Fundamental Duties under article 51-A to be obeyed by every Indian citizen is given in the table below:

Importance of Fundamental Duties- Part IV-A
Fundamental Duties are an inalienable part of fundamental rights. The importance of these are given in the table below:

Facts about Fundamental Duties for UPSC:
(i) Fundamental Duties are categorized into two – Moral Duty & Civic Duty

• Moral Duty: cherishing noble ideals of freedom struggle
• Civic Duty: respecting the Constitution, National Flag and National Anthem

(ii) They essentially contain just a codification of tasks integral to the Indian way of life
(iii) The Fundamental Duties are confined to Indian citizens only and do not extend to foreigners unlike a few Fundamental Rights
(iv) They are also nonjusticiable similar to Directive Principle of State Policies
(v) There is no legal sanction against their violation

Criticism of Fundamental Duties
The Fundamental Duties mentioned in Part IVA of the Constitution have been criticized on the following grounds:

• They have been described by the critics as a code of moral precepts due to their non-justiciable character. Their inclusion in the Constitution was described by the critics as superfluous. This is because the duties included in the Constitution as fundamental would be performed by the people even though they were not incorporated into the Constitution.
• Some of the duties are vague, ambiguous and difficult to be understood by the common man.
• The list of duties is not exhaustive as it does not cover other important duties like casting vote, paying taxes, family planning and so on. In fact, the duty to pay taxes was recommended by the Swaran Singh Committee.
• The critics said that the inclusion of fundamental duties as an appendage to Part IV of the Constitution has reduced their value and significance. They should have been added after Part III so as to keep them on par with Fundamental Rights.
• Swaran Singh’s Committee recommended more than 10 Fundamental Duties, however, not all were included in the Constitution. 

Those duties recommended by the committee which were not accepted were:

• Citizens to be penalized/punished by the parliament for any non-compliance with or refusal to observe any of the duties.
• The punishments/penalties decided by the Parliament shall not be called in question in any court on the ground of infringement of any of Fundamental Rights or on the ground of repugnancy to any other provision of the Constitution.
• Duty to pay taxes.