Plea To Enforce Fundamental Duties : Centre Seeks Two More Months Time To File Response In Supreme Court

Fundamental duties have been inserted in Part IV-A of the Constitution of India.

A Division Bench of  Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh was inclined to defer the hearing after the Attorney General for India, appearing for the Centre sought for more time in order to receive inputs from various ministries and departments on the matter.

"Two months time may be granted for our counter affidavit…..We need inputs from various ministries and departments."

Noting the same, the bench deferred the matter to September 26.

In April, AG Venugopal had objected to the petition filed by Advocate Durga Dutt. Asserting that "tremendous amount of work" has been done by the Ministry of Law and Justice to create awareness about duties, the AG said that the petitioner should have first done research to ascertain the facts before filing the said writ petition. The AG added that the prayer to enact a law to enforce duties is not maintainable at all as no mandamus can be issued by the Court to the Parliament.

The Court had issued notice in the matter in February. During that hearing, the sought Central Government's response as to whether any steps have been taken in pursuance of the top Court's judgement in case of Shri Rangnath Mishra v. Union of India and Ors, wherein directions were issued to the Centre to consider and take appropriate steps expeditiously for the implementation of the recommendations of Justice JS Verma Committee's report on the operationalisation of fundamental duties.

The present petition argues that the non-adherence of the Fundamental Duties has a direct bearing upon the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

Further, the petition pointed out that except for some scattered legislation, there is neither a uniform policy nor a comprehensive code for enforcement of Fundamental Duties. "It is need of the time to motivate every citizen of India to perform their duty 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 value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture and protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. The people of this country should have a duty to preserve the nationality and integrity of the country," petition further stated.

The plea also seeks to set up an independent High Powered Committee headed by a retired Chief Justice or Judge of the Supreme Court or any High Court to scrutinize and review the entire legal framework relating to the effective implementation of Part IV-A and give out recommendations on the same.

The petitioner has also prayed for framing guidelines/ regulations for taking appropriate steps to sensitize the people and spread general awareness among the citizens in relation to performance of Fundamental Duties.

Case Title: Mr Durga Dutt v Union of India & Ors| WP(Civil) No 67 of 2022