Salient Features of Indian Constitution

Introduction:

The Indian Constitution is nothing but a legislated document, enacted to be followed as it is. This document in turn gives a legal and fundamental recognition to the three pillars of our country which are Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary.

The Fundamental and the most supremacist document of all the enactments is also a supreme act of justifying a recognition of an Independent Nation, India. Within it, the legislation lays certain; rules, powers, rights, and duties which both the citizens owe towards the nation, and which the government and other official bodies i.e. the wagon directors owe towards the citizens in return. Apart from this, the legislation serves as a proof of maintaining certain Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties owing to the virtue of human existence, the virtue of legal bodies recognition, and moveable and immovable properties as well. Not only this but also the Constitution pays an equal amount of consideration towards the dead by way of decent religious burial recognized under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

With this, the Constitution also serves as a basic document of recognizing that the underprivileged and the privileged class of citizens are treated equally well. That the women, the children, and as recently legalized, the non-gender confirming community are treated equally as well.

Constitution as enacted obliges like a blackletter document and a rule book that is not just the supremacist but even the lengthiest and diversified legal document as enacted in the whole world. The historical evolution of it along with its needs of constitution and significance are discussed in this present article.  

Historical Understanding

The Indian Constitution was legislated by the Constituent Assembly, 74 years back which holds its stance even true till today’s date. It nearly took three years for the Assembly to complete the momentous task of legislating the Indian Constitution that comprises of 395 Article, 12 Schedules, 22 Parts, and 104 Amendments to its effect, to date.

The Constituent Assembly was headed by Dr Sachidanand Sinha as the Provisional President and Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent Chairman. The Assembly had then set up 13 different committees within its ambit for the framing of the Constitution of which the Drafting Committee of Legislating the same was headed by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, also vividly known as the Father of Indian Constitution. The drafting committee had the aid of other parallel committees which were; House Committee, Ad Hoc Committee, Union Constitution Committee, Minorities Sub-Committee, Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee alongside 11 other committees[1] formed a key role in fabricating the historic legislation.

It was in the year 1946 that the Constituent Assembly was created under the effective British Legislation which was the Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946. Being constituted prior to the Nation attaining its Independence, the Assembly had to undergo a few changes soon in August 1947.

Soon, with Pakistan attaining its Independence on the 14^th of August in the year 1947, the committee members who formed part of Pakistan’s province in the then Bharat left the Nation and led to a reshuffling of the committee members. Consequently, the triumph of Independent India, marking an end to the ruling of the British Raj led to another wave of reshuffling and re-appointment of some members in the Constituent Committee.

After this, on 3rd of June in the year 1947, a separate Constituent Assembly for both India and Pakistan’s provinces were constituted and the Indian Constituent Assembly[2] held its first successful meeting in the Capital of Independent India, Delhi, headed by Dr Rajendra Prasad- the first President of Independent India.

With the dawn of the British Rule, the Independent India geared to take up the functioning, security, and recognition of its activities and citizens by the framings of the legislated Constitution. The Indian Constitution was then adopted on the 26^th of November, 1949 and with the signature of its members substantiating the drafting of the same, it came into operation and in effect from the 24^th of January, 1950.

This step leads to a successful progression of relocating the powers which were led by the Provincial Parliaments of India; succeeding the power being in hands of the East Indian Company, to now being transferred to the Parliament subsequently constituted in 1952 for a fair and impartial governance of the Nation.

Salient Features of the Indian Constitution

With a well-drafted legislation and the farsightedness of the enactment of the Constitution, it continues to hold its relevance to date. Not only is the document a historic mark but also provides for a Preamble which is inclusive of all the prominent objectives that the legislation strives to protect, to inculcate, and to justify.

A portion of the features of the Constitution are iterated as follows:

1. Preamble- the protector of legislation

The Preamble isn’t just the central part of the legislation but also it caters to a prominent base for the legislation to be justified in its totality. Having its objectives bifurcated in dual halves the Preamble enunciates- what and who should be guarded and guided by the constitutional agenda whereas it also describes what and how the governance should be so done.

Preamble with its introduction has undergone various changes over a period of time, by incorporating the words; Secular and Socialist. Of this, the former means that the state neither recognizes nor promotes favoritism or hatred towards any religion in particular[3] and that the citizens of the nations as well as people residing with the territorial jurisdiction of the nation are free and cannot be compelled by the State or any sub-limbs of its by incorporating any law, to profess and practice any religion.[4] Catering to a masses benefits, the Apex Court held in S. R. Bommai v Union of India[5] held that secularism stands to be the basic feature of the Constitution also, it should be safeguarded to offer respect to every religion.

Whereas the phrase ‘Socialist’, being borrowed from Russian Constitution embarks that, all the people shall be treated with equality regardless of their affluence based on caste, creed, sex, or status in the society.[6] Both of these terminologies were introduced by the effect of the 42^nd Constitutional Amendment.

2. A Tale of Compilation from different Countries

The Constitution of India is a novel document which also projects the incorporation of different theories and phrases into our legislation, borrowed from different legislations across the world.

This makes it have a different remarkable highlight. Likewise, it can be said that, Constitution has been set up after a profound investigation of all the known Constitutions of the world. The Framers of the Indian Constitution have tried hard to gather the best features of each of the existing constitutions, may be federal, unitary having Parliamentary System or Presidential system.[7]

a)      United Kingdom’s Constitutional Practices

Such as the Parliamentary System, the incorporation of ‘rule of law’[8], the Cabinet Form of Government[9] and its working and also the framing of Parliamentary Privileges,[10] have all been incorporated from the British Constitution, although it does not have any written constitutional document in existence.

b)      American Constitution  

The Indian Constitution incorporates and owes its existence of the concept of Vice-President,[11] Fundamental Rights[12], the incorporation of the idea of Preamble itself, and the important powers of Judicial Review to the American Constitution. These are few concepts to be named apart from the- Governor being appointed by the Centre[13], the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court[14] , and the like.

c)      Irish Constitution

The concept of incorporating the mechanistic understanding of Directive Principles of State Policies also known as the DPSPs[15], for election of President in India; its means, way and qualifications[16] and the nomination of a member in the Rajya Sabha[17] are all concepts incorporated from the Irish Constitution by the Indian drafters.

d)      French Constitution

The concept of the Principle of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Republic nature of India observing a prominent place in the preamble are all borrowed from the French Constitution.

e)      Others- A Compilation of Different Countries

The concept of Socialism incorporated in the Preamble and the concept of Fundamental Duties[18] are both borrowed after studying the Russian Constitution, whereas the idea of having to join parliamentary sessions for passing and approval of bills in the House of Parliament[19] is the concept borrowed from the Australian Constitution of 1990.

Apart from these, the very prominent power of the Parliament of amending the Constitution and laying a procedure for doing so was incorporated under the Indian Constitution by effect of the 24^th Constitutional Amendment in the year 1971 after studying the South African Constitution.

Whereas the power of proclamation of Emergency by the President[20] of various kinds such as that of proclamation of Financial Emergency[21] has been incorporated by the German Reich Constitution.   

3. Implementation

The Constitution although came into force from the 26^th of January 1950, by the Articles dealing with that of determination of Indian Citizenship,[22] on how the elections are supposed to be held, the legal recognition of provisional parliament and the temporary transitional provision of such like were recognized with the immediate effect of its drafting which was from the 26^th of November, 1949.

4. Lengthiest Constitution

The Indian Constitution stands to be the bulkiest and the lengthiest in the whole world. The explanation behind including nitty-gritty arrangement was that, the constitutional creators earnestly of the view that smooth working also, baby majority rules system may be risked except if the Constitution referenced in nitty-gritty things.

Since Independence, the framers realized what the Nation expected to protect and incorporated the same to protect its provisional interpretations from being misunderstood or misjudged. As also, the drafters of the Indian Constitution had studied and compared various Constitutional Provisions and documents of various countries of the world, it gave them a broad perspective of what worked well for its further incorporating into the supreme legal enactment of the nation. 

5. Justiciable and Non-Justiciable Provisions

The Fundamental Rights which form its place in Part III of the Indian Constitution recognize all the special rights which the country offers to its Citizens being dissented from the International Conventions and having protection of basic human rights by virtue of them being natural persons are known as Justiciable Rights. This is so because the aggrieved person can approach the courts for protection of the same and to seek a remedy thereupon.

Whereas the Directive Principles of State Policies which form part of Part IV of the Indian Constitution are recognized as the Non-Justifiable provisions of the Indian Constitution as it inflates more of a moral duty on the citizens to be incorporated and are subject to moral behavior.

6. Basic Structure Theory

Basic Structure Theory puts implied limitation on the power of the Parliament and advocated Doctrine of Limited Government preferred to English Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty.[23] With the assistance of Article 368, Parliament can alter the constitution. All aspects of the constitution can be changed by the Parliament aside from the fundamental structure of the constitution as held by the Supreme Court in the case of Kesavananda Bharti v Union of India[24]. Any law which disregards the fundamental structure of the constitution is proclaimed unconstitutional and invalid by the court.

Conclusion

The Constitution of India is a whole mix of the apparent provisions, and in this manner, the provisions and articles in themselves make it the apex law of the state. The spirit of the Constituent Assembly in actualizing and deciphering any article of the constitution should consistently be thought of. The composers of the constitution have attempted to consolidate the provisions in the constitution so that there is no degree for vagueness relating concerning how governance would occur in a nation and this manner, it is simply the feature of the Indian Constitution which in itself makes it a total and an extensive document of the nation.

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References:

[1] First Day in the Constituent Assembly,

http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/constituent/facts.html#:~:text=The%20Constituent%20Assembly%20took%20almost,a%20total%20of%20165%20days

[2] Anant N. Kalse, Salient Features of The Constitution of India, (Feb., 2017), http://mls.org.in/books/Salient%20Features%20of%20the%20Constitution%20of%20India.pdf

[3] Constitution of India 1950, Article 25(1)

[4] Constitution of India 1950, Article 25(2)

[5] (1994) SCC 1 SC

[6] D. S. Nakara v Union of India, (1983) AIR 130 SC

[7] Supra Note 2

[8] Constitution of India 1950, Article 13

[9] Constitution of India 1950, Article 74

[10] Constitution of India 1950, Article 105

[11] Constitution of India 1950, Article 63

[12] Constitution of India 1950, Part III

[13] Constitution of India 1950, Article 155

[14] Constitution of India 1950, Article 143

[15] Constitution of India 1950, Part IV

[16] Constitution of India 1950, Article 57

[17] Constitution of India 1950, Article 80

[18] Constitution of India 1950, Part IV-A, Article 51-A

[19] Constitution of India 1950, Article 108

[20] Constitution of India 1950, Article 352

[21] Constitution of India 1950, Article 360

[22] Constitution of India 1950, Article 5

[23] Supra Note 2

[24] (1973) 4 SCC 225

Other Sources:

1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42743243.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ad1f124a1f73cc43b45e86dae5d236fb2
2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/43951770.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A4fe8ca8dd643d1ea0c7f0867ebaffb8c
3. https://www.worldwidejournals.com/paripex/recent_issues_pdf/2018/March/March_2018_1520252970__79.pdf
4. https://www.historydiscussion.net/history-of-india/indian-constitution-farming-implementing-and-structure/688#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20of%20India%20was,)%20and%20Baluchistan%20(1)