Indian Constitution and Human Rights: Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles

Every teenager in Mumbai uses rights without naming them: posting an opinion online, joining a college union, walking into a temple, mosque or gurdwara of their choice. Those freedoms are not favours from the government; the Constitution lists them. The same document also tells the State to secure a living wage and equal pay, and tells you, the citizen, to protect public property. Which of these can you take to a court, which can you only ask the government to honour, and how do the pieces fit together? That is the question this topic answers.

In two minutes

The Constitution carries human rights in three parts: Fundamental Rights (Part III) that courts enforce, Directive Principles (Part IV) that guide the State but are not enforced by courts, and Fundamental Duties (Part IVA) that bind citizens; the Supreme Court reads them together with human dignity as the common thread.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Human Rights Law on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.