1. — Directive Principles of State Policy

Your society can be forced to fix a leaking water tank, because a court will order it. But no court can order the State to give every citizen a job or a uniform set of family laws, even though the Constitution says the State should work towards both. Why would a Constitution write down promises that nobody can sue on? And if a promise in Part IV collides with a right in Part III, which one wins? This topic answers that, and then turns the question around: what does the Constitution ask of you as a citizen?

In two minutes

Part IV (Arts. 36–51) tells the State what to aim for and Art. 37 says no court can enforce it, yet the State must apply these principles in making laws; the courts have spent seventy years deciding how far they yield to, or are read together with, the fundamental rights in Part III.

The rest of this chapter

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