Unit 3: Directive Principles, Policies and Obligations of the State — Enforcement Mechanism of Directive Principles, Policies and Obligations of the State; Role of Judiciary in Enforcing Directive Principles; Relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of the State
1. The Concept and the Text
Directive principles — the constitution’s aspirational program: objectives the state commits to pursue, policies it promises to follow, obligations it accepts — without individual enforceability. The model: the Irish Constitution’s 1937 borrowing from the Spanish 1931 design; India’s Part IV (the Nepal-comparative’s constant); Nepal’s own lineage: the 1962 Constitution’s duties-and-directives style (rights suspended, aspirations installed), the 1990 text’s directive chapter, and the 2015 Constitution’s Part 4 (Articles 49–59) — the fullest Nepali version.
The 2015 architecture:
- Article 49 (the guiding clause): the principles, policies and responsibilities “shall remain as guidelines for the governance of the State,” with the state obligated to mobilize the required resources;
- Article 50 (directive principles): four objectives — political (federal democratic republican strengthening; rule of law; rights-and-inclusion; cooperative federalism; local autonomy and decentralization), socio-cultural (civilized egalitarian society; end of discrimination; cultural diversity respected), economic (self-reliant economy developing toward a socialism-oriented economy; equitable distribution; end of exploitation) and international-relations (sovereign equality; national interest and prestige);
- Article 51 (policies): the great catalogue — national unity and security; political-and-governance reform (rule of law, human rights, implementation of international treaties Nepal has joined, good governance, clean public administration); social-cultural transformation; finance-industry-commerce (foreign aid transparent and within the budget); agriculture and scientific land reform (ending dual ownership); development (balanced, environment-friendly, science-investing); natural resources (inter-generational justice; water-resources priority; renewable energy); basic needs; social justice and inclusion; and international relations (independent foreign policy, UN Charter, Panchasheel, non-alignment — the Foreign Policy of Nepal’s constitutional anchors, IRD5203, Semester 3);
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