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Article 51A

 Our country India has the lengthiest written constitution in the world. In this, the rights of every person

are kept in mind. However, the three organs of the State cannot make this country self-reliant until they

get the proper support from the citizens as well. So certain fundamental duties are expected from the

citizens to be carried out. In this article, we will discuss the Fundamental Duties which are expected to

be carried out by the citizens of our country. It is a moral obligation on the citizens to maintain the

feeling of patriotism and unity among all the citizens of the country.


The fundamental duties which were added by the 42 nd 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-à-vis the fundamental rights.


Part IVA of the Indian Constitution deals with Fundamental Duties. As of now, there are 11 Fundamental

duties.


Originally, the Constitution of India did not contain these duties. Fundamental duties were added by 42 nd

and 86 th Constitutional Amendment acts.


Citizens are morally obligated by the Constitution to perform these duties. However, like the Directive

Principles, these are non-justifiable, without any legal sanction in case of their violation or non-

compliance.


Need for Fundamental Duties:

It is important to understand that no democratic system could ever succeed if the citizens are not willing

to participate actively by discharging their duties which are expected to be done by them.


Our Constitution has provided us with various rights and expects us to perform certain duties as a

return. Article 51(A) talks about these Fundamental Duties and has 11 fundamental duties that are

expected to be performed by the citizens (there were 10 earlier and 11 th was added later by the 86 th

amendment). First, we will discuss these 11 fundamental duties and then we can move on to the next

topic whether it is needed or not.


We need to follow our Constitution and should respect our national flag and national anthem.

Should follow the ideals of the freedom struggle

Protect the sovereignty and integrity of our nation.


Protect our nation and provide national services when required.

Should have the spirit of a common brotherhood.

Preserve the culture of our country.

Protect the environment of our country

Generate scientific rationale for every thought.

To protect public property.

Strive for excellence.

It is the duty of every parent to send their children between 6-14 years to school.


From these fundamental duties, one can easily understand the need for the fundamental duty in our

constitution. It is required to protect the sovereignty of our nation. To maintain the unity and integrity

of our nation. Rights and duties go hand in hand and cannot be separated at any cost. Fundamental

duties and fundamental rights are two sides of a coin that we know cant be separated. Also, it is found

as the need of the hour to introduce fundamental duties in our constitution.


Maintain the Sovereign Nature of State:

The main aim of the insertion of fundamental duties was to maintain the sovereign nature of our state.

Although these are not legally enforced they also provide some kind of sovereign power to our state.


To maintain Unity and The integrity of the nation:

In the current scenario, we can see that people are often talking about the term intolerance. They are

relating intolerance with unity. According to them if the people become intolerant then the

compatibility with other people will be affected and ultimately the unity among different people will be

affected terribly. Our Fundamental Duties help in developing tolerance among the citizens and

ultimately help in developing the feeling of unity and integrity among the citizens of our country. In the

interpretation of different statues which are made by the legislature.The Fundamental Duties help in the

interpretation of the law/statutes made by the legislature. It is held in many cases that the need for

Fundamental Duties in interpreting the Fundamental Right is pivotal. In the case of Mohan Kumar

Singhania v. Union of India, the court held that statutes made according to Article 51(A) of our

Constitution are valid. Thus from this, we can clearly see that Fundamental Duties help in interpreting

the constitutional provision.To create a balance between the claims of the individual citizen and those of

the civil society:A report was submitted by a committee led by late Justice J.S. Verma in the year 1999.

The need for and importance of Fundamental Duties (especially under Article 51A) was explained by this

committee. It can be found in recommendation nos 3.38.1 and 3.38.2 of the report.According to this

committee, it is important to create a balance between the expectations of individual citizens and to

create a civil society. To achieve this goal, it becomes important to orient the citizens of our country to


be aware of their social and citizenship responsibility. And by doing this we will ultimately end up

shaping the civil society(By term civil society, we mean that a society where all become concerned and

considerate of the rights of fellow citizens).Needed for the current situation When our Constitution was

drafted by our Constitution makers, they didnt need to insert the fundamental duty in our constitution.

But as time passes the need and importance of Fundamental Duty was felt that is why they were

inserted later by 42nd Amendment in our Constitution. Earlier the feeling of patriotism, harmony,

feeling to promote brotherhood, secularism were inherent and there was no need to put any moral or

legal obligation on the citizen to the same. The feeling of serving the country and defending the country

at any cost was there among the citizens of the country. The people were willing to protect the rich

heritage of Indian culture. However, as time passed people were lacking these qualities. Earlier the

above qualities were taught by the family and also by the teachers in school and colleges. But with time,

all the people become so busy in their life that they forget to inculcate these values among themselves.

Those qualities which were once an integral part of the life of the citizens of India were found to be

enforced in the form of Fundamental Duties.


Article 51 (A): Fundamental duties

It shall be the duty of every citizen of India:

To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National

Anthem

To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;

To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India;

To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;

To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India

transcending religious, linguistic, and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory

to the dignity of women

To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have

compassion for living creatures;

To develop the scientific temper, humanism, and the spirit of inquiry and reform;

To safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation

constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement.

To provide opportunities for education by the parent the guardian, to his child or a ward between the

age of 6-14 years as the case may be.


Conclusion

At last, we can conclude that in this article we have come to know about every aspect of Fundamental

Duties and by reading every aspect of it we can clearly understand the need and importance of

Fundamental Duty. It was added in our constitution as our government realized that civil society can not

be made by the state only. The citizens of our country need to play a vital role in achieving the basic aim

of our constitution. They can do this by following their duties towards the nation as mentioned in Article

51A of our Constitution.

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