Definition

Article 28, Draft Constitution of India 1948

In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, “the State” has the same meaning as in Part III of this Constitution.

Article 36, Constitution of India 1950

In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, “the State” has the same meaning as in Part III.

Draft Article 28 was discussed on 19 November 1948. It opened Part IV of the Draft Constitution titled ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’ and defined the meaning of ‘State’ in this context.

The debate began with an Assembly member moving an amendment to replace ‘Directive’ with ‘Fundamental’ in Part IV’s heading. The member pointed out that in the earlier committee stages, Part IV was titled as ‘Fundamental Principles of Governance’, and wanted to know why the heading was changed. It was clarified to the member the term ‘Directive’ was used to emphasise that principles contained in Part IV were directives; ‘Fundamental’ was consciously dropped to make Part IV distinct from Part III – Fundamental rights.

Another amendment proposed to replace ‘the State’ with ‘State’. This was opposed by the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, who argued that there were different senses in which the term ‘State’ was used in the Draft Constitution. The term ‘the State’ as used in Part III was the most appropriate for Part IV as well: panchayats, district and local boards (See Article 12), that came under ‘the State’ in Fundamental rights were the relevant institutions for the implementation of Directive Principles.

The Article was adopted on the same day without any amendments.