General Awareness The Constitution and Its Features

Constitution for India

The constitution of India is the lengthiest of all the written constitutions of the world. Initially, it contained a Preamble, 395 Articles, 22 parts & 8 schedules. As of now, it has a Preamble, about 450 Articles, 24 parts and 12 schedules. Some of the factors leading to the elephantine nature of our constitution can be summarised as follows:

i) Since Government of India Act 1935 was adopted as a model for the Indian Constitution and it was a very voluminous document in itself. Thus it naturally made the constitution a lengthy document.

ii) The Indian constitution has elaborated provisional for Judiciary, Public Service Commissions, Election Commission, Controller and Auditor General of India etc. Which also makes it voluminous as compared to other constitutions.

iii) The Indian constitution has provisions regarding the administration of states. This is unlike the U.S. constitution where the state from their constitution separately. Since the federal constitutions is supposed to describe in details the rights and jurisdictions of the centre and the states. Thus making it more bulky in nature.

iv) The diversity and the vastness of the country with a pluralist tradition and variety of problems demanded varied solution. Thus it became the utmost priority for the constitution framers to tackle these issues with detailed solution and various provision, for example Part XVI of the constitution is related to Schedule Caste, and Schedule Tribe and Backward Classes separately, While the Fifth and Sixth Schedule are related to tackle the issues related to Scheduled Areas and Tribes separately.

v) In order to meet the growing region demand from several state such as Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradeh, Maharashtra, Sikkim etc. Some specific articles have been inserted for example article 371, 371 A to 371-I, Thus making the constitution lengthier.

Making of the Constitution

- The Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946, under the scheme formulated by Cabinet Mission Plan.
- The total strength of the Assembly was 389, out of these 296 were elected to represent the British India and 93 seats to the princely states.
- Out of 296 members, 292 members were to be elected by the provincial legislatures while 4 members were to represent the= Chief Commissioner's provinces of Delhi, Ajmer-Warmer; Coors and British Baluchistan.
- 93 members were to be nominated by the rulers of the princely states. The members
were elected indirectly on the basis of Muslims, Sikhs and others in proportion ton their population.
- The Constituent Assembly, held its first meeting on 9th, December, 1946, and reassembled on 14th August, 1947, as the Sovereign Constituent Assembly for the dominion of India.
- It took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to finalise the Constitution.
- Objective Resolution was moved in the first session of the Constituent Assembly (on 13th December, 1946), by Pandit .Jawaharlal Nehru, which was adopted after considerable deliberation and debate in the Assembly on 22nd January, 1947.
- Dr. Sinha was the provisional President of the Constituent Assembly, when it met on 9th December, 1946, while later Dr Rajendra Prasad and HC Mukherjee were elected the permanent President and Vice-President of the Assembly respectively.
- BN Rau was appointed as the Constitutional Adviser of the Assembly.
- The Constituent Assembly appointed a Drafting Committee on 29th August, 194 7. Dr BR Ambedkar who was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, submitted a Draft Constitution of India to the President of the Assembly on 21st February, 1948. The other members of the drafting committee were N Gopal Swamy Ayyangar, Alladi Krishna Swami Ayyar. KM Munshi, Mohammad Saad-ul-lab, N Madhava Rau and TT Krishna. mariachi.
- Seats were allotted to each province and each Indian state proportional to
their respective population roughly in the ratio of one to a million. Mahatma Gandhi was not a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Enactment of the Constitution

- On 26th November, 1949, the Constitution was declared as passed. The provisions relating to citizenship, elections and provisional Parliament etc were implemented with immediate effect, that is from the 26th November, 1949. The rest of the provisions came into force on 26th January, 1950.
- Our Constitution had a Preamble and 395 Articles, 1 8 Parts and 8 Schedules.
The Constitution has undergone 100 Amendments since its enactment. The Constitution, in its current form, consists of a Preamble, 25 Parts, 465 Articles and 12 Schedules.

Committees of the Constituent Assembly

Constituent Assembly appointed a number of committees to deal with different tasks of Constitution making. Some of them are:

The Preamble

- The Preamble means Introduction or Preface of the Constitution or essence of the Constitution. NA Palkhivala, an eminent jurist and Constitutional expert, called the Preamble as the.
- The Preamble to the Indian Constitution is based on the Objectives Resolution drafted and moved by Pandit Nehru and adopted by the Constituent Assembly.
- We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to Constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and secure to all its citizens. ession, belief, faith and worship. Equality of status and of Opportunity and to promote among them all. Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation. In our Constitute Assembly this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.

The Preamble reads:

We, the People of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and to secure to all its citizens;

Justice, social, economic, political;

Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

Equality of status and opportunity; and to promote among them all;

Fraternity, assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation;

In our Constituent Assembly this, twenty sixth day of November 1949 do hereby Adopt, Enact and Give to ourselves this Constitution.

The words ‘Socialist ‘Secular” and ‘Integrity were initially not there in the Preamble. These were added by the 42nd Amendment (1976) of the Constitution.

Sources of Indian Constitution

The Constitution framers adopted from several sources, features which are present in the Indian Constitution. The main sources may be identified as

Government of India Act, 1935:

Federal Scheme, Office of Governor, Judiciary, Public Service Commissions, Emergency provisions, Administrative details.

1. British Constitution - Parliamentary government, Rule of Law, Legislative procedure, Single citizenship, Cabinet System, Prerogative Writs.

2. US Constitution - Fundamental Rights, Independence of Judiciary, Judicial Review, Impeachment of the President, Removal of Supreme Court and High Court judges and post of Vice-President.

3. Irish Constitution - Directive Principles of State Policy, nomination of members to Rajya Sabha and method of election of President, Federation with a strong centre, Vesting of residuary powers in the Centre, appointment of State Governors by the Centre and advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

4. Canadian Constitution - Federation with a strong centre, residuary powers with the centre, appointment of state governors by the centre and advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

5. Australian Constitution - Concurrent List, Freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.

6. Soviet Constitution - Fundamental duties, the ideal of justice (social, economic and political) in the Preamble.

7. French Constitution - Republic and the ideals of liberty equality and fraternity in the Preamble.

8. South African Constitution - Procedure for amendment, the Constitution and election of the members of Rajya Sabha.

9. Japanese Constitution - Procedure established by law. The drafted Constitution was finally adopted on November 26, 1949.

Parts of the Constitution

Original Indian Constitution had 22 parts and 395 articles. Later 3 parts were added to it as amendments ( 9A – Muncipalities, 9B – co-operative societies, and 14A tribunals). Various articles were also added under these 25 parts of Indian constitution as amendments. At present, the total article count is around 444. An overview of Indian Constitution Parts and Articles is provided in this post.

Amendability of the Preamble

- The Preamble can be amended under Article 368 or not, this question arose for the first time in Kesavananda Bharati Case (1973). In this case Supreme Court held that Preamble is the part of the Constitution and can be amended, subject to the condition that no amendment is done to the basic features of the Constitution.
- The Preamble has been amended only once so far, in 1976, by 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, which added three new words Socialist, Secular, and Integrity. This amendment was held to be valid.

 
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