Cases on constitutional law-II: Fundamental rights, directive principles and fundamental duties

This course is intended to impart a proper appreciation of values selected by the Constitution for being realized in Independent India. Part III Fundamental Rights bear on individual liberty and dignity which consequently speak of limitation on state power. Interestingly and significantly, the Constitution itself has defined the 'State' to include all centres of public power.
The Indian Constitution is also significant in that it makes specific mention of fundamental policies that are expected to govern exercise of public power in terms of purposes identified for being realized. These represent parcels of power related to identified purposes and the problem of working this constitutional module has been largely one of balancing these two aspects: limitation of power in Part III and conferrals of power in Part IV. From 1982, however the Supreme Court has broken new ground in that it has found it possible to read some of the Directive principles of state policy into fundamental postulates of prohibition of power to the State to deny equality before Law and equal protection of Laws. This opens new dimensions to the equality of Status guaranteed by the Constitution and therefore would deserve considerable attention in terms of the total value scheme of the Indian Constitution. The equal weightage given by the Supreme Court to Part III and Part IV and the recent developments in reading Part IV into Part III would make the course fundamentally important in the study of the Indian Constitution.