| Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties in Indian Constitutional Law : The Boundaries of Liberal Constitutionalism

Some recent academic work describes India as the world’s largest illiberal democracy. (A Varshney 2022; S Ganguly 2020; TB Hansen 2019) Is it possible for India to transform into an illiberal democracy, electoral autocracy or a totalitarian state while sustaining its ‘liberal constitution’? This course aims to explore and respond to this question. Most current analysis focuses on the enforcement of fundamental rights, the independence of constitutional institutions including the Courts and the Election Commission. This course will focus on less examined parts of the Constitution: Part IV on Directive Principles and Part IV-A on Fundamental Duties. These parts of the Indian Constitution are not standard parts of most liberal constitutions. A rigorous account of their origins, constitutional evolution and current application is crucial to understanding, and potentially reshaping, the likely trajectories of Indian constitutionalism.

Directive Principles were inserted into the Indian Constitution to transform social, political and economic arrangements across India. Comparative constitutional law scholars have focused on the South African constitution as the standard case of a transformative constitution using social and economic rights. In this course, we explore the ways in which the Indian constitution framers approached this task five decades before the South African constitution. In particular we look closely at the adoption of Directive Principles as the primary mode through which such transformation is sought to be achieved and as an alternative to social and economic rights.

Fundamental Duties were inserted into the Constitution by constitutional amendment. While there was a modest discussion of the need for constitutional duties in the Constituent Assembly, this gathered strength by the mid 1970s. Though Fundamental Duties have historically not shaped Indian constitutional law adjudication as significantly as Directive Principles, recent cases suggest that they will grow in scale and impact in the near future.

The course will be organised around primary materials: Constituent Assembly debates, Supreme Court cases, philosophical treatises and journal articles. Each week we will engage with these materials to discuss and critically examine the place of Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties in Indian Constitutional law. The course will adopt a seminar discussion format with equal emphasis on engagement with the texts and imaginatively rethinking the theoretical and philosophical concepts at play. Students interested in constitutional law, political theory, comparative constitutional law and the relationship between law and political/social transformation will find this course rewarding.

Evaluation:

Seminar Paper (5000 words): 40 Marks

Seminar Paper Presentation: 10 Marks

Response Paper 1 (1000 words): 20 Marks

Response Paper 2 (1000 words): 20 Marks

Class Participation: 10 Marks

Response paper:

Each student will be assigned a prescribed reading from a specific session to which they must submit a 1000 word response paper. Students must submit the response paper ahead of the session in which the specific reading has been prescribed so it can be discussed in the class. Response papers must be submitted the midnight before the seminar in which it is to be discussed. Upload the response paper on LMS for everyone to access.

Seminar Paper:

Seminar paper topics must be sent to and for approval by 3 April 2023. The deadline for submission for the seminar paper is 20 May 2023. Presentations will be held on 25 May 2023, in class hours.