CERTIFICATE COURSE ON ENFORCEMENT OF

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Analyzing the Enforcement

Fundamental rights are an essential element of the Rule-of-law insofar they allow
predictability within the legal realm. A legal system whose procedural rules cannot provide
individuals with the certainty that the State will enforce his or her constitutional prerogatives
cannot expect the law to successfully guide conduct. For this reason the enforcement of

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fundamental rights must be guaranteed in spite of a careless legislative, a negligent
administration, an arbitrary trial judge, or a combination of all of the above. Although a
coherent system of constitutional review cannot guarantee that the law will be able to guide
people’s conduct, an incoherent one certainly guarantees that it will not. A mix of
constitutional review procedures based on elements from different legal traditions is not
necessarily wrong.

What is clearly flawed is the belief that constitutional rules in favor of individuals should
serve different purposes in different traditions. In other words, it is a mistake to act as if the
fundamental rights conferred by a Constitution were for just a few and not universal. If a

constitutional rule in benefit of an individual cannot be judicially enforced, then it should not
be called a “right”. Similarly, if this “right” is not applicable for everyone, then it should not
be called “fundamental”. At a time in which Indian Legal System enforces fundamental rights
should be on both of victims and perpetrators. The call for a coherent system of constitutional
review is more necessary than ever.

Today, in the 21st century would we be able to say that the real power to govern this nation is
vested in its people? Yet, the question that frequently emerges is, does the constitution in
genuine terms express the will of the people or the constitution has become a tool in hands of
hungry politician? Are the general People of India in real terms assures of Justice, equality,
fraternity, and liberty? Is the common man today getting equity or justice? Does equality
really prevail? Is Liberty being practiced by all today?

In the wake of changing trend in Indian society, a Fundamental right is highly required.
Though the constitution is an extremely impressive piece but has failed in some aspects.

Reasons for Non-Enforcement

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There are various reasons as to why our Fundamental Rights are not being enforced today.
Although the Constituent Assembly gave us a lot of rights which have been interpreted very
widely by the Apex Court in various cases, but the actual enforcement remains a question.
Hereby we list a few reasons as to non enforcement :-

1. Lack of Knowledge – Not many Indians are concerned with their rights. Poverty,
lack of education being one reason and ignorance another. Maybe except those
connected with the legal field, the no. Of people well acquainted with the
Fundamental Rights is really minimal.
2. Huge Pendency – Due to the huge pendency of cases in India, people are highly
reluctant to approach the Courts to provide a remedy even if their most basic rights
are being violated. With merely a handful of judges looking after crores of cases, it is
almost impossible to make things better.
3. Lack of Resources – Every Indian is well aware of the fact that going to the Court is
a hefty business and would cost them nothing less than thousands of Rupees. This
reason prevents many of the lower class, middle class and upper middle class people
to approach the Courts as they might not be capable of affording the cost involved in
the so called free and fair legal process.

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 4. Inadequate Remedies – As only the State can violate the Fundamental Rights, the
remedy that a State provides is not adequate. The State may provide Compensation or
Restitution of the situation which may never be enough for the people as the situation
may have involved a lot of other things which cannot be considered either by the
Judiciary or the State.
5. Stubborn Attitude – The State is not always generous enough to give in and accept
its faults. They would not want to compensate anyone and neither would wish to take
back their decisions and thus try out every single possible tactic to avoid any kind of
repercussions and thus try and get away in suits.

Summing Up

These are some of the reasons and not all. Enforcement of Fundamental Rights is the highly
necessary for our nation and cannot be neglected. This is high time and the society needs to
be well aware of their rights and Judiciary should take a stricter stance when it comes to our
Fundamental Rights.

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With this we come to an end to our Course. Hope it was an enriching experience for all
of you. We thoroughly enjoyed the journey with you all and hope you all did the same
too. We shall roll out the assignments within a couple of days so that you all get ample
time to complete them.

Thank you.

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