Date:13/08/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/08/13/stories/2003081302801300.htm

National

SC for enforcing citizens' duties

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI Aug. 12. The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to enact a law for the enforcement of fundamental duties by citizens as suggested by the Justice Verma Committee.

A three-member Bench comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice S.B. Sinha said the Centre might consider the panel's recommendations in right earnest.

The Bench directed the Centre to take appropriate steps for implementation of the recommendations at the earliest.

The former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Mishra, in a letter to the Chief Justice of India, requested the apex court to issue necessary directions to the State to educate its citizens in the matter of fundamental duties so that a right balance emerged between rights and duties.

This letter was treated as a writ petition and referred to a five-member Constitution bench which said that it was enough that this matter was decided by a three-member bench.

The Bench appointed senior advocate K. Parasaran, as amicus curiae to assist the court. Mr. Parasaran brought to the notice of the Court the report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, wherein the report of the Justice Verma Committee was accepted and its early implementation recommended.

The Commission, Mr. Parasaran said, had recommended that the first and foremost step required to be taken by the Union and the State Governments was to sensitise the people and create a general awareness of the provisions of fundamental duties amongst the citizens, on the lines recommended by the Justice Verma Committee. Right to freedom of religion and other freedoms must be zealously guarded and the rights of minorities and fellow citizens respected; reform of the whole process of education was an immediate but immense need, as was the need to free it from governmental or political control.