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Polity · Fundamental Duties (Art 51A)

UPSC Prelims 2025, Question 55

The concept being tested: Part III (Fundamental Rights) / Part IVA (Fundamental Duties) / Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy).

Consider the following pairs: I. Separation of Judiciary from the Executive in the public services of the State — The Directive Principles of the State Policy. II. Valuing and preserving of the rich heritage of our composite culture — The Fundamental Duties. III. Prohibition of employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories — The Fundamental Rights. How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

Options

  1. AOnly one
  2. BOnly two
  3. CAll the threeCorrect answer
  4. DNone

The answer: All the three

All three pairs correctly place their provision in the right part of the Constitution. Article 50 directs the State to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services, but because it imposes no enforceable obligation and only sets a governance goal, it sits in Part IV as a Directive Principle of State Policy. Article 51A(f), inserted by the 42nd Amendment of 1976, casts valuing and preserving the rich heritage of India's composite culture as a Fundamental Duty in Part IVA. Article 24, part of the Right against Exploitation in Part III, is a justiciable Fundamental Right that bars employing any child below fourteen years in a factory, mine, or hazardous occupation. Since each statement correctly matches its provision to its actual constitutional home, all three pairs stand, and the answer is All the three.

What UPSC was testing

The question checks whether aspirants can tell apart provisions that sound like enforceable rights from those that are only aspirational. Article 50 is the deliberate trap: separation of judiciary from executive feels like it should be a right, but because it cannot be enforced in court, UPSC places it firmly among the Directive Principles.

How often this comes up

This concept has appeared 14 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025.

The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.