India This article is part of the series: Constitution of India

Preamble PARTS Fundamental Rights PART I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V ∙ VI ∙ VII VIII ∙ IX ∙ X ∙ XI  ∙ XII ∙ XIII ∙ XIV XV ∙ XVI ∙ XVII ∙ XVIII ∙ XIX ∙ XX ∙ XXI XXII SCHEDULES First ∙ Second ∙ Third ∙ Fourth ∙ Fifth Sixth ∙ Seventh ∙ Eighth ∙ Ninth Tenth ∙ Eleventh ∙ Twelfth APPENDICES I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V AMENDMENTS 1 - 10 ∙ 11 - 20 ∙ 21 - 30 31 - 40 ∙ 41 - 50 ∙ 51 - 60 ∙ 61 - 70 71 - 80 ∙ 81 - 83

Politics of India Union Government Elections Political Parties Local & State Govt. Other countries ·  Law Portal  view • talk • edit

The Constitution of India (Hindi: भारतीय़ संविधान, see names in other Indian languages) is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens. Passed by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, it came into effect on January 26, 1950.^[1] The date 26 January was chosen to commemorate the declaration of independence of 1930. It declares the Union of India to be a sovereign, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty and to promote among them all fraternity; the words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" and to promote among them all "Fraternity"; were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment.^[2] India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on January 26 each year as Republic Day.^[3] It is the longest^[4] written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 395 articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 94 amendments^[5], for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation. After coming into effect, the Constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India. Being the supreme law of the country, every law enacted by the government must conform to the constitution. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, was the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution.

[edit] Origins

[edit] Government of India Act 1919

This section requires expansion.

The Government of India Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. V c. 101) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was passed to expand participation of the natives in the government of India. The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Sir Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford. The Act covered ten years, from 1919 to 1929.

[edit] Government of India Act 1935

This section requires expansion.

The Government of India Act 1935 was the last constitution of the British Raj.

[edit] The Cabinet Mission Plan

The 1945 British Parliamentary Delegation in India.

In 1946, at the initiative of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, a cabinet mission to India was formulated to discuss and finalize plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership and providing India with independence under Dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations.^[6][7]

The Mission discussed the framework of the constitution and laid down in some detail the procedure to be followed by the constitution drafting body. Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British Indian provinces were completed by August 1946. With the independence of India on August 15, 1947, the Constituent Assembly became a fully sovereign body and began work on 9 December 1946.

[edit] The Constituent Assembly

The Constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by the elected members of the provincial assemblies.^[8] Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Nalini Ranjan Ghosh were some important figures in the Assembly.

Constituent Assembly in session.

There were more than 30 members of the scheduled classes. Frank Anthony represented the Anglo-Indian community, and the Parsis were represented by H. P. Modi and R. K. Sidhwa. The Chairman of the Minorities Committee was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, a distinguished Christian who represented all Christians other than Anglo-Indians. Ari Bahadur Gururng represented the Gorkha Community. Prominent jurists like Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, B. R. Ambedkar, Benegal Narsing Rau and K. M. Munshi Ganesh Mavlankar were also members of the Assembly. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur were important women members. The first president of the Constituent Assembly was Sachidanand Sinha later, Rajendra Prasad was elected president of the Constituent Assembly.^[8] The members of the Constituent Assembly met for the first time in the year 1946 on December 9.^[8]

Jawaharlal Nehru signing the Constitution of India.

[edit] Drafting

In the August 14, 1947 meeting of the Assembly, a proposal for forming various committees were presented. Such committees include Committee on Fundamental Rights, the Union Powers Committee and Union Constitution Committee. On August 29, 1947, the Drafting Committee was appointed, with Dr Ambedkar as the Chairman along with six other members. A Draft Constitution was prepared by the committee and submitted to the Assembly on November 4, 1947.

The Assembly met, in sessions open to public, for 166 days, spread over a period of 2 years, 11 months and 18 days before adopting the Constitution.^[3] After many deliberations and some modifications, the 308 members of the Assembly signed two hand-written copies of the document (one each in Hindi and English) on the January 24, 1950. Two days later, the Constitution of India became the law of all the Indian lands.

The Indian Constitution has undergone 94 amendments in less than 60 years of its enactments.

[edit] System of government

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page.

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, was the Chief Architect of Indian Constitution.

The basic form of the Union Government envisaged in the Constitution was introduced by Dr. Ambedkar as follows,

India, thus adopted a Parliamentary form of government, with the President as the nominal head of the Executive and the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers wielding actual power.

[edit] Structure

The Constitution, in its current form, consists of a preamble, 22 parts containing 448 articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and over 108 amendments to date.

[edit] Parts

Parts are the individual chapters in the Constitution, focused in single broad field of laws, containing articles that addresses the issues in question.

[edit] Schedules

Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorizes and tabulates bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government.

• First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4) — States and Union Territories  – This lists the states and territories on of India, lists any changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change.
• Second Schedule (Articles 59, 65, 75, 97, 125, 148, 158, 164, 186 and 221) — Emoluments for High-Level Officials  – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
• Third Schedule (Articles 75, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219) — Forms of Oaths  – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges.
• Fourth Schedule (Articles 4 and 80)  – This details the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory.
• Fifth Schedule (Article 244)  – This provides for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas^{[Note 1]} and Scheduled Tribes^{[Note 2]} (areas and tribes needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions).
• Sixth Schedule (Articles 244 and 275)— Provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam.
• Seventh Schedule (Article 246) — The union (central government), state, and concurrent lists of responsibilities.
• Eighth Schedule (Articles 344 and 351) — The official languages.
• Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) - This covers land and tenure reforms; the accession of Sikkim with India. It may be reviewed by the courts^[18].
• Tenth Schedule (Articles 102 and 191) — "Anti-defection" provisions for Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures.
• Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-G) — Panchayat Raj (rural development).
• Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W) — Municipalities (urban planning).

[edit] Changing the constitution

Amendments to the constitution are made by Parliament. However they must be approved by a super-majority in each house, and certain amendments must also be ratified by the states. The procedure is laid out in Article 368. Despite these rules there have been over ninety amendments to the constitution since it was enacted in 1950. The Supreme Court has ruled, controversially, that not every constitutional amendment is permissable. An amendment must respect the "basic structure" of the constitution, which is immutable.

In 2001 the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC)^[19] was setup to look into updating the constitution of India.

[edit] Judicial review of laws

This section requires expansion.

Judicial review is actually adopted in the Indian constitution from the constitution of the United States of America. In the Indian constitution, Judicial Review is dealt under Article 13. Judicial Review actually refers that the Constitution is the supreme power of the nation and all laws are under its supremacy. Article 13 deals that

1. All the pre constitutional laws, after the coming into force of constitution, if differs from it in all or some of its provisions then the provisions of constitution will prevail & the provisions of that post constitutional law will hide till any amendment in constitution relating to the same matter. In such situation the provision of that law will again come into force this is called the Theory of Eclipse.

2. In a similar manner, laws made after adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly must be compatible with the constitution, otherwise the laws and amendments will be deemed to be void-ab-initio.

In such situations, the Supreme Court or High Court interprets the laws as if they are in conformity with the constitution. If such an interpretation is not possible because of inconsistency, and where a separation is possible, the provision that is inconsistent with constitution is considered to be to be void.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• History of democracy
• List of national constitutions
• Magna Carta
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
• Uniform civil code of India
• Constitution of Alabama. The longest written constitution of any area.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Baruah, Aparajita (2007). Preamble of the Constitution of India : An Insight & Comparison. Eastern Book Co. ISBN 9788176299960. 
• Basu, Durga Das (1965). Commentary on the constitution of India : (being a comparative treatise on the universal principles of justice and constitutional government with special reference to the organic instrument of India). 1 - 2. S. C. Sarkar & Sons (Private) Ltd. 
• Basu, Durga Das (1984). Introduction to the Constitution of India (10^th ed.). South Asia Books. ISBN 0836410971. 
• Basu, Durga Das (1981). Shorter Constitution of India. Prentice-Hall of India. ISBN 9780876922002. 
• Das, Hari Hara (2002). Political System of India. Anmol Publications. ISBN 8174886907. 
• Dash, Shreeram Chandra (1968). The Constitution of India; a Comparative Study. Chaitanya Pub. House. 
• Ghosh, Pratap Kumar (1966). The Constitution of India: How it Has Been Framed. World Press. 
• Jayapalan, N. (1998). Constitutional History of India. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 8171567614. 
• Khanna, Hans Raj (1981). Making of India's Constitution. Eastern Book Co. ISBN 9788170121084. 
• Basu, Durga Das (1984). Introduction to the Constitution of India (10^th ed.). South Asia Books. ISBN 0836410971. 
• Pylee, M.V. (1997). India's Constitution. S. Chand & Co.. ISBN 812190403X. 
• Pylee, M.V. (2004). Constitutional Government in India. S. Chand & Co.. ISBN 8121922038. 
• Sen, Sarbani (2007). The Constitution of India: Popular Sovereignty and Democratic Transformations. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195686494. 
• Sharma, Dinesh; Singh, Jaya; Maganathan, R.; et al. (2002). Indian Constitution at Work. Political Science, Class XI. NCERT. 
• "The Constituent Assembly Debates (Proceedings):(9th December,1946 to 24th January ,1950)". The Parliament of India Archive. http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/debates.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-22. 

[edit] External links

India portal

Find more about Constitution of India on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Ministry of Law and Justice of India - The Constitution of India Page
• Constitution of India as of 29 July 2008
• Constitutional predilections
• Commonwealth Legal Information Institute - Online Copy
• Online version of Constitution of India, 1949

v • d • e Government of India Constitution Constitution of India · Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties of India Executive Government of India · Prime Minister · Cabinet Ministers Legislative Parliament · Lok Sabha · Rajya Sabha · President · Vice President Judiciary Supreme Court · Chief Justice · High Courts · District Courts

v • d • e  India Topics Basic topics · Alphabetical index of topics History Overviews Timeline · Economics · Linguistics · Maritime · Military · Science and technology · Mathematics · Astronomy · Metallurgy · Postage Pre-colonial Stone Age · Indus Valley Civilization · Indo-Aryan migration · Vedic period · Mahajanapadas · Magadha · Middle kingdoms · Hoysala · Cholas · Kakatiya · Islamic sultanates · Vijayanagara · Mughals · Marathas · European trade Colonial East India Company · Plassey · 1857 Rebellion · British Raj · Railways · Economy · Army · Zamindari · Social changes · Political reforms · Princely states · Partition of Bengal · Independence movement · 1943 famine · World War II · Partition Republic Integration · Non-Aligned Movement · Five-Year Plan · Sino-Indian War · Indo-Pakistani wars · Green Revolution · White Revolution · Naxal Insurgency · Smiling Buddha · Space program · The Emergency · Khalistan movement · Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) · Economic Reforms · Pokhran-II Government     Law Enforcement: Federal National Investigation Agency (NIA) Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Border Security Force (BSF) Law Constitution Fundamental Rights & Duties Administrative Divisions Legislature Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha Executives President Vice President Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister Cabinet Ministers Government Agencies Judiciary Supreme Court • Chief Justice High Courts District Courts Policy Foreign policy Energy policy Law Enforcement: Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) Intelligence Bureau (IB) Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) Military Indian Army Indian Navy Indian Air Force Indian Coast Guard Politics Censorship · Elections · Human rights · Nationalism · Political parties (Congress • BJP • BSP • CPI • CPM • NCP) · Reservations · Scandals · Scheduled groups · Secularism Geography Landforms Mountains · Glaciers · Volcanoes · Valleys · Rivers · Lakes · Desert · Islands · Extreme Points · Waterfalls · Beaches Plains (Gangetic Plains · Eastern coastal · Western coastal) Regions East India · West India · North India · South India · North East India Subdivisions States and territories · Cities · Districts · Autonomous regions · Municipalities Environment Climate · Climatic regions · Geology · Ecoregions · Sanctuaries · National Parks  · Biosphere Reserves · Protected Areas · Wildlife · Fauna · Flora Economy Agriculture · Communications · Companies · Education · Exchanges (BSE • NSE) · Healthcare · Income · Poverty · Standard of living · Reserve Bank · Rupee · Tourism · Labour · Forestry  · Fishing · Livestock · Transport · Energy (Solar • Wind • Nuclear) • Water Culture Arts and entertainment · Architecture · Caste · Cinema · Cuisine · Dance · Demographics · Dress · Folklore · Holidays · Languages · Literature · Media · Martial arts · Music · Religion · Sport · Wine Education Literacy · Department of Higher Education · Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) · Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) · National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) · Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan · University Grants Commission · All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) · Institutes of Technology / Indian Institutes of Management / Indian Institute of Science · more Portal