8TH FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT--- 'To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reforms'

FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES FACING THE INADEQUACIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE PROVISION DUE TO NON JUSTICIABLITY OF DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES, COMMENTATORS HAVE ALSO POINTED OUT THAT OUR CONSTITUTION IS EMBATTLED AND IMPERILLED BECAUSE WE HAVE FAILED TO IMPREGNATE OUR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROCESS WITH PATRIOTIC ZEAL AND FULFILL THE ASPIRATIONS. TO OVERCOME THIS REALITY ARTICLE 51-A AND PART IV-A WERE INTRODUCED BY 42ND AMENDMENT IN 1976. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible (1) For understanding the fundamental duties is it necessary to know the basic meanings of these terms. Fundamental Something that is an essential or necessary part of a system or object. (2). fundamental means the basic feature of law. Why this law is prevailing in our country. As we can also say “our birth right”. Duties A duty mean that some person has to do something or abstrain from doing something in favour of another person. 1. Art 29(1) of the universal declaration of human right makes a succinct statement regarding duties. Pg-141 ; 9.1 chapter- 9 FD , introduction to the constitution of India by brij kishore Sharma; 6th edition 2. Basis four duties lie in our tradition pg- 199 by DR. veena madhav tonpai, published by universal law publishing co. pvt ltd. 2013. Salmonds says :- “A duty is roughly speaking an act which one ought to do, an act the opposite of which would we wrong.” Duty is a species of obligations. Duties are either moral or legal. For eg :- • it is our moral duty not to waste food and paper. • . It is a legal duty of the debtor to pay up the amount of the debt to his creditor. When the law recognizes an act as a duty , it is commonly enforce the performance of it , or punished the disregard of it .The law protects human interest by compelling individuals to do or forbear from doing particular thing. • Illustration While driving a car A meet an accident and hit B. Here, question arises what is the duty of A? o Here it’s become the duty of A to hospitalized him(B). A perform his duty opposite to wrongful act . that is he hospitalized B as performing his moral duty. o when situation of wrongful act arose then A ran away do not hospitalized B. Acc. To this situation A don’t perform his moral duty as he hasn’t hospitalized B. Our constitution provided for fundamental rights at the time it was framed but it did not make any mention of the fundamental duties. It is believed that the framers of our constitution did not may specific mention of fundamental duties as they were bought up in our culture where a duties were ingrained in the rich tradition of this country . A bhagavad gita itself provide for “karamanye vadhikaraste” that is your right is to perform your duties. Thus duty was placed at such high level that “if a person is prohibited from performance of duties, it would amount to violating his right to perform his duties.” Through fundamental rights are justiciable (the non performance of these duties by citizens is punishable) but fundamental duties are not justiciable (the non performance of these duties by citizens is not punishable). Fundamental duties introduced during emergency It is ironical that the chapter of fundamental duties was introduced during the internal emergency in our country when the rights of thousands of citizens were infringed because the person at the apex of the country’s administration had forgotten the duties attached to her office. 4. K.R.K VARA PRASAD - PETITIONER V. UNION OF INDIA - RESPONDENT AIR 1980 ANDHRA PRADESH 243 Bench-T. LAKSHMAIAH, J. AND K. PUNNAYYA , J. Facts The petitioner is the President of the Indian Fundamental Rights Association having its Head-quarters at Secunderabad. He seeks for the declaration that the definition given under Section 18 of the Indian Penal Code is ultra virus of the Constitution. According to him, Article 1 of the Constitution defines 'India' as the Union of States and hence it includes the State of Jammu and Kashmir. He, therefore, contends that Section 18 I. P. C. which defines 'India' as the territory of India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir, is opposed to Article 1 of the Constitution and is therefore, unconstitutional. Issues 1. This Suit is maintainable or not ? 2. Does Parliament has power or authority to exclude the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the definition of India under Section 18 of the I. P. C. contrary to the definition of India under Article 1 which includes the State of Jammu and Kashmir? Judgment Sec 18 of ipc:- i. "18. "India" means the territory of India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir We feel no doubt that the definition of India given by Section 18 of the Code is not co-extensive with the definition of 'India' given by Article 1 of the constitution inasmuch as the definition of 5.India given under Section 18 is not inclusive of Jammu and Kashmir. But we find ourselves unable to agree with the contention of Sri Prasad that Section 18 is unconstitutional, as the Parliament has defined 'India' under Section 18 of the code to be consistent with the territorial extent and operation as envisaged by Section 1 of the Code. ii. Sri Prasad contends that the Constitution provides under Article 51-A certain Fundamental duties just as fundamental rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution to a citizen. He, therefore, claims that in respect of Article 51-A he is entitled to apply under Article 226 for the issuance of a writ of mandamus declaring that Section 18 of the Code is opposed to Article 1 of the Constitution. Art.1 of constitution of India iii. . Article 1 of the Constitution reads as follows:- "(1) India, that is Bharat, shall be Union of States. (2) The States and the territories thereof shall be as specified in the First Schedule. (3) The territories of India shall comprise. (a) The territories of the States; (b) The Union territories specified in the First Schedule; and (c) Such other territories as may be acquired." Clause (2) says that the States and the territories thereof shall be specified in the First Sch. First Sch. mentions the names of the States and the territories that each State comprises of. The State of Jammu and Kashmir takes its place as No. 15 amongst the States mentioned therein. Explanation A careful examination of these provisions makes it abundantly clear that the Constitution commands the citizen of India to follow the duties enumerated under this Article. The petitioner is not able to show how his claim will come under any of the duties stated under Article 51-A. He is, therefore, not entitled to invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226. In view of the aforesaid reasons, we find no merits in the Writ Petition. It is, therefore, dismissed, but in the circumstances. Without costs. Petition dismissed. 6.“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reforms”… • The Fifth Parliament by the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution inserted one article namely Article 51 (A). It says that “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry”. Thus, a good citizen of India is duty bound to develop a scientific temper. Development of scientific temper among the people could, in fact, bring into focus the essence of all religions-the universal laws governing the inner world of human beings and, thus, promote communal harmony in a multilingual, muti-religious and multiracial country like India. • Jawaharlal Nehru who popularised the term "scientific temper” in India. He dreamt of a nation with a "scientific temper". By this he meant people who would be able to think independently, understand and practice scientific methods in their daily lives, analyse and take informed and calculated decisions rather than taking statements at their face value and avoid simplistic reasoning. 7.• Of course, it has been easier said than done to create that atmosphere in a nation where superstition, religion, rumour, myth and innumerable beliefs abound. Thus, we are still struggling to build scientific temper even after 69 years of independence. Each of the fundamental duties of Indian citizens is self-explanatory. As per the values of Indian family system, children are told right from our childhood to accept whatever has been told to them. The same thing is echoed during primary education. The sense of enquiring and making a reform is never told or promoted. In fact, sense of enquiry and reform is crushed at every stage. This leads to a situation, where kids become non-creative. The non-creative child grows up and again preaches the same values to his/her children and this cycle has been continuing. That’s precisely the reason why we haven’t produced intellectual ideas and social reforms. To make things more clear, let me categorically state certain examples – Existence of superstition in most parts of India is an example of the inability of people to enquire and reform. “My forefathers believed, so I believe it too” … That’s the answer you find from these people when asked. On the other hand, humanism is a primarily rational coupled with emotional quality. Every citizen had 3 elements inherent i.e. • Animaility, humanity and divinity. Caution and control are required against following into animalism. Humanism is outstanding in man’s nature. There must be its incessant manifestation in conduct and behavior. 8.Every citizen should strive for development or raise towards divinity , qualities higher than human. No one can inspire to be divine unless he /she strive in thought, word and deed to be first a human. To cause harm in body, reputation or property to other by any word, deed or thought is animality .for e.g. - if I thought to kill someone with cruelty or By misrepresenting someone transfer their property to my name or I cause any bodily injury to someone or I cause insult of someone at public place all these consider as animality If any organization or the country as a whole were to achieve progress, we have to foster a Scientific Temper in the citizens with absolute capacity for critical evaluation. With lack of Scientific Temper our ability to take rational decisions weakens. Though sometimes we take rational decisions but at many occasions we don’t. It is the Scientific Temper that enables us to take our decisions rationally. This may be the reason why the concept of “Scientific Temper” was built-in in our constitution. Article 51 A of our constitution which deals with fundamental duties makes it a duty of every citizen to develop a Scientific Temper. Article 51 A of our constitution also makes it a duty of every citizen to develop Humanism & spirit of enquiry and reform. It further makes it duty of every citizen to abide by the constitution and respect its ideals and as we know Secularism is one of the most important ideals of our Constitution. 9.Secularism, Humanism & Spirit of enquiry and reform are directly related to Scientific Temper. It is the Scientific Temper that helps in developing Secularism, Humanism & Spirit of enquiry and reform. It is important to carry out the duties laid down in the constitution, there are reasons other than formal and legal for understanding and practicing Scientific Temper. If we have a Scientific Temper, we can understand and solve our problems with much less difficulty or stress, and we would be reasonable in our decisions and creative in our activities. Our Constitution has wanted us to possess Scientific Temper so that we could be better citizens and capable of governing our personal thoughts and actions in a scientific manner. Though the country today can claim in various spheres like atomic energy, space and telecommunication, technological excellence, it is a matter of regret that the Scientific Temper among the general public, more so with the educated public has not progressed to the desirable degree. It should be realized that our education, especially our school education has not generated this critical spirit of Scientific Temper. Scientific Temper has to be an inherent quality in minds of our people, particularly the educated and it has to be a societal responsibility also. Why we haven’t produced intellectual ideas and social reforms because:- – Glorification of works done by ancestors is a habit of Indians. Just because, people merely follow what has been told to them than doing something creative, some primitive work done by ancestors becomes so sacred that it can’t questioned and reformed 10.Suppression of creativity and scientific ideas in the name of religion, culture and traditions is rampant in most part of the country. People still treat scientific advances as foreign invasion on their religion, culture and traditions. Scientific temper involves many parameters. It is characterized by healthy scepticism, universalism, freedom from prejudice or bias, objectivity, open mindedness and humility, willingness to suspend judgement without sufficient evidence, rationality, perseverance and last but not the least a positive approach to failure. The hallmark of all decision-making by a person with scientific temper is logic, rationality and verifiability. Perseverance, is another important characteristic of scientific attitude. Even the flash of insight, which characterizes many great scientific achievements, usually follows hard toil and reflection on the problem for long periods of time. As Thomas Elva Edison said “science is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration”. Why are we so unscientific/irrational ? • How can we justify our belief in absurd religious dogmas/rituals? • How can we blindly follow the religions of our parents and identify ourselves as hindu, muslim, christian etc. ? • How can we, instantly, without examination, see the faults of other religions and at the same time remain blind to the irrationality, inconsistencies, contradictions of our own religion ? • How can we consider believing without evidence as a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of lives but at the same time consider believing in gods and the religious dogmas/rituals, without evidence, as a virtue ? 11.• How can we be easily trapped by the gurus, babas, godmen, soothsayers, astrologers, tantrics etc? • How can we shut off all our mental faculties when it comes to our faith (religion)? • What weakness of brain allow us to swallow all the non sense of superstitious dogmas/rituals of our religion ? • What weakness of brain allow us to cling to the time wasting world of irrational beliefs that constitute religion and religious practices? Of course the answer is that we are the victims of, relentless, early life indoctrination. The flaw is in our education. It is quite possible that when we were children, theism (belief in god) could have been imposed on us, first by our parents and then by our schools and so our brains have been conditioned to accept all the irrational beliefs/rituals/dogmas of our faith. Due to this conditioning , the unscientific, irrational, superstitious beliefs have great influence on our brains. Due to this conditioning Scientific Temper could not develop in our brains. Due to this conditioning a powerful irrational part has developed in our brains. The unscientific, irrational, superstitious beliefs are deep-rooted in this powerful irrational part of the brain. Although, due to education and exposure to science, a small rational part has also developed in the brains which sometimes tries to revolt against the irrational beliefs/dogmas of faith, but it is ruthlessly crushed by the powerful irrational part of the brain. 12.A Statement on Scientific Temper was issued on behalf of the Nehru Centre, Mumbai in July 1981. It mentions that Scientific Temper involves the acceptance, amongst others, of the following premise that the: • Method of science provides a viable method of acquiring knowledge, • Human problems can be understood and solved in terms of knowledge gained through the application of the method of science, • Fullest use of the method of science in everyday life and in every aspect of human endeavor from ethics to politics and economics is essential for ensuring human survival and progress • One knowledge gained through the application of the method of science should be accepted as the closest approximation of truth at that time and question what is incompatible with such knowledge. • Example : Sapling: iskonamhinahihai – Is Ko Nam Hi Nahi Hai ( no name for this sampling) Scientific temper is an attitude of logical thinking. If a person uses the scientific method in his/her daily life decision making process knowingly or unknowingly then we can say that he/she has scientific temper. This scientific temper is important in our life because this kind of attitude enable general public for making their decisions rational. Therefore we can conclude that the development of scientific temper among the citizens is essential for the overall development of the nation. 13.It is necessary to develop scientific temper among all the people Irrespective of their age, caste, creed, religion etc. • In fact for an overall growth and development of any organization or the country as a whole, we have to foster Scientific Temper in the citizens with absolute capacity for critical evaluation. The lack of Scientific Temper weakens our ability to take rational decisions. This may be the reason why the concept of “Scientific Temper” was built in our constitution.