Guest Lecture at KIIT Law School on Inter-Relationship between Part III, Part IV & Part IVA of the Constitution of India in the Present Day Context
The KIIT Centre for Constitutional Law Studies and Research, KIIT Law School (KLS) organized an Online Guest Lecture on “Inter Relationship between Part III, Part IV & Part IVA of the Constitution of India in the Present Day Context” by Hon’ble Mr. Justice G. S. Singhvi, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India on 20th February 2022.
Justice Singhvi discussed the concept of justice that is envisaged in the preamble accompanied by social, economic and political justice. Throwing light on the Constitutional history and Constituent Assembly debates, he interpreted the Part III of the Constitution with respect to Fundamental Rights. He focused on the case of Kesavananda Bharati that evolved the theory of the basic structure of the Constitution. He stated and interpreted Part IV with respect to Directive Principles of States Policy of Indian Constitution. He also interpreted Part IVA that talks about the Fundamental Duties of citizens.
Justice Singhvi discussed the interrelationship between Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties as they are redundant in nature, which also means that they overlap. For instance, Article 21 talks about Right to Education, which is fundamental to every citizen of the country. On the other hand, Article 51A(k), which is under Part IVA, is also concerned with how every parent or guardian figure of a child should provide educational opportunities for the child from the ages of 6 years to 14 years.
He gave instances where Part III, IV, and IV-A overlap with each other. The judicial attitude has undergone a transformation on the relationship between the Directive Principles and the Fundamental Rights over time. There are cases that adopted the doctrine of harmonious construction in which the Courts said that in determining the scope and ambit of Fundamental Rights, the Directive Principles should not be completely ignored. In other cases, through time, different observations have been made, as both Parts III (Fundamental Rights) and IV (Directive Principle) must be balanced and harmonized. These are not regarded as exclusionary of each other but as supplementary and complementary to each other.
The talk was followed by a Q&A session. Dr. Bhavani Prasad Panda, Director, KIIT Law School and Mr. Shashank Nande, Faculty Coordinator also spoke on the occasion. The webinar was attended by the faculty members, academicians, the members of the CCLSR, and students.