Previous Year Question

Fundamental Duties were incorporated in the Constitution of India on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. The Government constituted the Sardar Swaran Singh Committee to examine the question of citizens' duties. On the basis of its recommendations, Fundamental Duties were incorporated into the Constitution in 1976.

They were added through the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976. A new Part IV-A and Article 51A were inserted into the Constitution. At that time, 10 Fundamental Duties were included.

The original Constitution, which came into force on 26 January 1950, did not contain a separate list of Fundamental Duties of citizens. They were introduced about 26 years after the Constitution came into force.

Later, the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 added one more Fundamental Duty. Under Article 51A(k), a parent or guardian has a duty to provide opportunities for education to his child or ward between the ages of 6 and 14 years. Thus, there are currently 11 Fundamental Duties.

A useful distinction is that the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was principally associated with democratic decentralisation and Panchayati Raj, not with Fundamental Duties. Hence, the relevant committee here is the Swaran Singh Committee.