Context: There has been growing advocacy for the integration of duty with rights. On Constitution Day last month, many Union Ministers used the occasion to underline this proposal.

• The question of rights(FR) blending with duties requires careful consideration. The duties here mean the ideals that were written into the constitution as Fundamental Duties (FD), Article 51A.

Issues with the proposal

• This suggestion is plainly in the teeth of the Constitution’s text, language, and history.
• To the framers of the Constitution, the very idea of deliberating over whether these rights ought to be provisional, and on whether these rights ought to be made subject to the performance of some alien duty, was against the republic’s vision.

Imposing duties a legislative prerogative: The Constitution’s framers saw the placing of mandates on individual responsibilities as nothing more than a legislative prerogative.

• For example, the legislature could impose a duty on individuals to pay a tax on their income, and this duty could be enforced in a variety of ways.
• If the tax imposed and the sanctions prescribed were reasonable, the obligations placed on the citizen will be constitutionally valid.
• In this manner, Parliament and the State legislatures have imposed a plethora of duties — duties to care for the elderly and for children; duties to pay tolls and levies; duties against causing harm to others; duties to treat the environment with care, the list is endless.

Against Constitution: What is critical, though, is that these laws cannot make a person’s fundamental right contingent on the performance of a duty that they impose.

• A legislation that does so will violate the Constitution.

About the opinions of blending FR and FD

• One opinion is that the blending should create a balance between fundamental duties and rights.
• Another view is that citizens should converge fundamental duties and rights. It is clear that when a person holds rights, s/he is owed an obligation by the duty holder, but the government’s view is different.

What was the view held by the constituent assembly?

• The emphasis on dignity was important, and it guaranteed basic human rights like equality, autonomy, liberty, and others. The idea of contingent rights was considered repugnant.
• But rights were not made absolute, and part III of the constitution also contained limitations of the rights. Any curtailment of rights would thus need legislative sanction and should be reasonable as per the constitution.

How did fundamental duties evolve?

• They were not present in the original form of the constitution. They were added after the Swaran Singh Committee recommendations through the 42nd constitutional amendment and Article 51A.
• It encouraged citizens to cherish noble ideas, uphold and protect the sovereignty of India among other provisions.

What do rights come with duty mean?

• It is a basic proposition that all rights come with duties.
• But those duties are quite distinct from the meaning ascribed to them in the popular discourse.
• When a person holds a right, she is owed an obligation by a duty-bearer.
• For example, when citizens are promised a right against discrimination, the government is obliged to ensure that it treats everybody with equal care and concern.
• Similarly, the guarantee of a right to freedom of speech enjoins the state to refrain from interfering with that liberty.

Integrating rights with duties

• Proponents of integration of duty with rights aim to treat otherwise non-binding obligations — the “fundamental duties” as Article 51A describes them on a par with, if not superior to, the various fundamental rights that the Constitution guarantees.
• In an inversion of the well-known dictum, they see duties, and not rights, as trumps.
• On Constitution Day last month, many Union Ministers used the occasion to underline this proposal.
• The government puts forward an idea that our rights ought to be made conditional on the performance of a set of extraneous obligations.

Road Ahead

• To balance them, one should discuss the nature of duties that rights create. For example, the right to freedom of expression requires the state to work towards creating an equal society where each person can express herself freely.

By: Shubham Tiwari