Report No. 46
32. Judicial inquiry not to be excluded.-
It is obvious that the whole object of Article 31C as at present drafted is to enable Parliament and State Legislatures to pass laws with the object of implementing the Directive Principles in question. If that is so, we see no justification for excluding judicial inquiry into the question about the existence of any rational nexus between the law and the object intended to be achieved by it. We feel confident that, once Article 31C is adopted by Parliament and the Constitution is suitably amended, judicial process will take cognizance or the new policy adopted by the Constitution and will not hesitate to recognise the primacy of the Directive Principles and the urgent need to implement them in order to meet the challenge of the times.
As we have already emphasised, if Article 31C is adopted, a very significant and important step forward will have been taken in giving due recognition to the primacy of the Directive Principles and we feel that, while taking this steps, it would be unreasonable to prevent any judicial inquiry into the question as to whether laws passed in pursuance of the new policy bear any connection with the object intended to be served by them.
It is also necessary to bear in mind that Article 31C does not seek to define or even describe concretely the content of the abstract economic principles enunciated in clauses (b) and (c) of Article 39; and that, we think, justifies our recommendation that the question about the content of the relevant Directive.
Principle or Principles sought to the implemented by any legislative enactment and its or their relation with the provisions of the said enactment should be left open for judicial inquiry. While dealing with this aspect of the matter, we may refer to the fact that Article 31A, which was inserted by section 3 of the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act, 1955, specifically and clearly enumerates by clauses (a) to (e) the objects for which laws could be passed and, yet, no provision has been made in the said Article providing that a declaration made by the appropriate Legislature that any law passed by it has been so passed for carrying out the objects enumerated in the clauses is conclusive and shall not be called in question in any Court. We trust that, having regard to this position, the Union Government should accept out recommendation to delete the last part of Article 31C.
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