Topic: Salient Features of Indian Constitution

INTRODUCTION

A constitution means a document having a special legal sanctity which sets out the frame
work and principal functions of the government, Constitution of a country gives idea about
basic structure of the political system under which its people are to be governed. It defines
the powers of the main organs of the state, demarcates their responsibilities and regulates
their relationships which each other and with the people. It can also be termed as
“Fundamental Law” of a country which reflects people’s faith and aspirations.

The Constitution of India is a unique constitution. It was framed by a Constituent Assembly.

This Assembly was an indirectly elected body. It had laid down certain ideals to be included
in the Constitution. These ideals included commitment to democracy, guarantee to all the
people of India Justice, equality and freedom. It had also proclaimed that India will be a
Sovereign Democratic Republic.1

It is the largest written liberal democratic constitution of the world. It provides for a mixture
of federalism and Unitarianism, and flexibility with rigidity. Originally having 395 articles
divided into 22 parts and 8 schedules, a lengthiest constitution of the world with systematic
elaboration on every topics and issues. At present, it contains 448 articles with 12 schedules
as a result of various amendments.

The Constituent assembly:

 The Constitution of India was framed by the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly
was constituted in 1946. The members of the Constituent Assembly were indirectly
elected by the members of the existing Provincial Assemblies. In addition, there were

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 members nominated by the rulers of the Princely States. With Independence of India,
the Constituent Assembly became a fully sovereign body.

 The Constituent Assembly, following the partition of the country in 1947, consisted
of 299 members as on 31st December 1947. Of these 229 members were elected by
the provincial assemblies and the rest were nominated by the rulers of the princely
states. Majority of the members in the Constituent Assembly belonged to the
Congress party. All prominent leaders of the freedom movement were members of
the Assembly.

Objectives of The Constitution:

 The Preamble of the Constitution contains the basic objectives of the Constitution.
These are: – to secure to all its citizens social, economic and political justice; liberty
of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and opportunity,
and to promote among them fraternity so as to secure the dignity of the individual
and the unity and integrity of the Nation.

 All these ideals are given in the Preamble to the Constitution of India. The Preamble
is based on the Objectives Resolution speech given by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13th
December, 1946 which outlined what kind of society and country India should aspire
to be.

 Apart from the above, the Constitution of India also has Fundamental Rights,
Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles of State Policy. They, along with the
Preamble, outline the kind of society to aim for and what the governments need to do
in order to make that a reality.
 SALIENT FEATURES

1. Longest Written Constitution:

 There are two types of constitution in the world. The first modern written
constitution was the American constitution and the other was British
constitution which is not written. The Indian Constitution is mainly a
written constitution. A written constitution is framed at a given time and
comes into force or is adopted on a fixed date as a document. Certain
conventions have gradually evolved over a period of time which have
proved useful in the working of the constitution.

 India’s Constitution is a lengthy, elaborate and detailed document. Originally

it consisted of 395 articles arranges under 22 parts and 8 schedules. Today,
after many amendments, it has 447 articles arranged under 26 parts and 12
schedules. It is indeed the lengthiest constitution of the world.

 The Indian constitution is wholly written document which incorporates the

constituent law of India. It was framed over a period of 2 years, 11 months
and 18 days, it was adopted on 26th November, 1949 and enforced on
January 26, 1950.

2. Derived from different constitutions:

 The Indian Constitution is one of a kind in its contents and spirits. In spite of
the fact that borrowed from relatively every constitution of the world, the
constitution of India has a few salient features that distinguish it from the
constitutions of different nations.

 Many individuals scrutinized that the Indian Constitution is a bag of

borrowings or is a more paper and scissor work. It is worth knowing that it
has borrowed features but drafted according to the Historical perspective of
India; Geographical diversity of India; and Cultural and traditional
 characteristics of India. The chairman of drafting committee Dr. Ambedkar
had said in this regard that – “As to the accusation that the Draft Constitution
has reproduced a good part of the provisions of the Government of India Act,
1935, I make no apologies. There is nothing to be ashamed of in borrowing. It
involves no plagiarism. Nobody holds any patent rights in the fundamental
ideas of a Constitution.”2

 Government of India Act of 1935: Federal Scheme, Office of governor,

Judiciary, Public Service Commissions, Administrative details.

 Britain: Parliamentary government, Rule of Law, Legislative procedure,

Single citizenship, Cabinet system, Prerogative writs, Parliamentary
privileges, Bicameralism.

 Ireland: Directive Principles of State Policy.

 Unites States of America: Impeachment of the president, Functions of

president and vice-president, Fundamental Rights, Judicial review,
Independence of judiciary, Preamble of the constitution

 Australia: Concurrent List, Freedom of trade, Commerce and intercourse.

 Soviet Constitution (USSR, now Russia): Fundamental duties, Five years

plan.

 Germany: Suspension of Fundamental Rights during an emergency.

3. Unique blend of rigidity and flexibility:

 A Constitution may be called rigid or flexible on the basis of its amending

procedure. Some parts can be amended by ordinary law making procedure
while certain provisions can be amended only when a Bill for that purpose is
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 passed in each house of Parliament by a majority of the total membership of
that house and by a majority of not less than two-third of the members of that
house present and voting.

 Some amendments are also required to be ratified by the legislatures of not

less than one-half of the states before being presented to the President for
assent.

4. Parliamentary System of Government:

 Theoretically, Parliament controls the functioning of the Council of

Ministers; hence it is called Parliamentary system. Here executive is
responsible to the legislature and remains in power as long as it enjoys the
confidence of the legislature.

 The President of India, who remains in office for five years, is the nominal,
titular or constitutional head (Executive).

 The Prime Minister is the real executive and head of the Council of Ministers
who is collectively responsible to the lower house (Lok Sabha).

5. Fundamental Rights:

 The Constitution of India grants and guarantees Fundamental Rights to its

citizens. It is called the Indian Bill of Rights. Initially, seven Fundamental
Rights were granted but after the deletion of the Right to Property from the
list of Fundamental Rights (44th Amendment Act 1979) their number came
down to six.

 Prof. H.J. Laski stated that "A state is known by the rights it maintains". The
constitution of India confirms the basic principle that every individual is
 permitted to enjoy certain basic rights and part III of the Constitution deals
with those rights which are known as fundamental right.

 Fundamental Rights have been made Justiciable. Justiciable rights means if

any of these rights are violated by the government or anyone else, the
individual has the right to approach the Supreme Court or High Courts for the
protection and enforcement of his/her Fundamental Rights. Thus, the
Constitution not only grants but also guarantees these rights. There are
elaborate instruments to protect these rights, such as Right to Constitutional
remedy, Public Interest Litigation, Human Rights Commissions.3

6. Fundamental Duties:

 Originally Indian Constitution didn’t have fundamental duties. It was

borrowed from the Soviet model that fundamental duties were added to the
Indian Constitution by 42nd amendment of the constitution in 1976. The
fundamental duties are contained in Art. 51A.

 The main aim of integrating fundamental duties in the Constitution is to

remind the people that while enjoying their right as citizens, should also
perform their duties as rights and duties are correlative.

 The fundamental duties however are non-enforceable and non-justiciable in

character. This means that no citizen can be punished by a court for violation
of a fundamental duty. Still they play a important part in the Constitution.

7. Directive Principles of State Policy:

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  A unique aspect of the Constitution is that it comprises of a chapter in the
Directive Principles of State Policy. These principles are in the nature of
directives to the government to implement them to maintain social and
economic democracy in the country.

 It exemplifies important philosophies such as adequate means to livelihood,

equal pay for both men and women, distribution of wealth so as to serve the
common good, free and compulsory primary education, right to work, public
assistance in case of old age, unemployment, sickness and disablement, the
organisation of village Panchayats, special care to the economically
disadvantaged group in country. Most of these principles could help in
making India welfare state. These principles have been stated a; "fundamental
in the governance of the country".4

8. Preamble:

 The Constitution of India begins with a Preamble which describes the nature
of the Indian State and the objectives it is committed to secure. K.M. Munshi
describes the Preamble as the political horoscope of the constitution. Thakur
Das Bhargawa says Preamble is the most precious part and the soul of the
constitution.

 The Preamble consists of the ideals, objectives and basic principles of the
Constitution.  The Preamble is described as an introduction or preface of a
book. As an overview, it is not a part of the contents but it explains the
purposes and objectives with which the document has been written.

 The Preamble describes the objectives of the Constitution in two ways: one, is
about the structure of the governance and secondly, it explains the ideals to be
achieved in independent India. It is because of this, the Preamble is
considered to be the major element of the Constitution.

9. Universal Adult Franchise:

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  Indian democracy functions on the basis of ‘one person one vote’. Every
citizen of India who is 18 years of age or above is entitled to vote in the
elections irrespective of caste, sex, race, religion or status. The Indian
Constitution establishes political equality in India through the method of
universal adult franchise.

 Age shifted from 21 years to 18 years by 61 st amendment(1988), to ensure

more participation of youth. Electoral commission were established.

10. Independent and integrated Judiciary:

 The Indian judiciary is free from the influence of the executive and the
legislature. The judges are appointed on the basis of their qualifications and
cannot be removed easily. Power of Judicial review is granted.

 The Supreme Court is the apex court of the judicial system. Under the
Supreme Court, there are the High Courts. The High Courts control and
supervise the lower courts.

11. Emergency Provisions:

 The Constitution of India contains special provisions for dealing with

emergencies. It recognises three types of possible emergencies:

 National Emergency (Article 352): An emergency resulting from war or

external aggression or threat of external aggressions against India or from
armed rebellion within India or in any of its part;

 State Emergency (Article 356): An emergency resulting from the failure of

constitutional machinery in any state or some states.

 Financial Emergency (Article 360): An emergency resulting from a threat to

financial stability of India.

 The President of India has been empowered to take appropriate steps for
dealing with these emergencies. During the period of an emergency, the
 powers of the President, actually of the PM and the Union Council of
Ministers Cabinet increase tremendously. President can take all steps deemed
essential for meeting an emergency. These are called emergency powers of
the President.

12. Single Citizenship:

 In a federal state, usually the citizens enjoy double citizenship as is the case in
the USA. However, in India there is only single citizenship. All the citizens of
India can secure employment anywhere in the country and enjoy all the rights
equally in all the parts of India.

13. Secularism:

 India gives no special status to any particular religion. There is no such thing
as a state religion of India. This makes it different from theocratic states like
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or other Islamic countries. Further, Indian
secularism guarantees equal freedom to all religions. The Constitution grants
the Right to Religious Freedom to all the citizens.

 All Religions are equal in the eyes of the government and given equal justice.
The government adopts the policy of neutrality with respect to religious
matters. The Fundamental right “Right to religion” is given to all people. The
Word ‘Secular’ has been added to the preamble through the 42nd
Amendment.

14. Local self government:

 Though initially there was only provision for dual polity later the 73rd amendment
and 74th amendment acts of 1992 have provided for a third tier of government that is
local self government.

 The 73rd amendment Act gave constitutional recognition to the panchayat by adding
a new part IX and a new schedule 11 to the constitution. Similarly the 74th
 amendment Act gave constitutional recognition to the municipalities by adding a new
part IXA and new schedule 12 to the constitution.5

Critical Analysis

In the present world, can we say that the real power to govern this country is vested in its
people ?

The question that often arises is, does the constitution in true terms express the will of the
people or is has it just become a tool in the hands of some greedy and hungry politicians?
Are the people of India in real terms assured of Justice, liberty, equality and fraternity? Is the
common man today receiving justice? Does equality really prevail? Is Liberty being
exercised by all today ? 6

“Salient Features of the Constitution” is a chapter from “Our Constitution: An Introduction

to India’s Constitution and Constitutional laws”. Indian Constitution is a lengthy and very
comprehensive document. It is unique in several ways. It cannot be fitted into any usual
model of constitution as written or unwritten, rigid or flexible, federal or unitary. In fact, it is
a blend of the rigid and flexible, federal and unitary, and the presidential and the
parliamentary forms of government. The fundamental rights safeguard citizens’ rights, while
the non-enforceable directive principles provide guidelines to the states while formulating
policies. There are provisions for reasonable restrictions of fundamental rights within the
Constitution by 42nd Amendment in 1976. The constitution has also established an
independent judiciary which has jurisdiction over all laws- union, state, civil, criminal or
constitutional. The power of Judicial Review ensures that the Legislature does not exceed its
powers. Indian constitution presents an intermediary between the principles of parliamentary
sovereignty and judicial supremacy.

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Constitution/324881
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https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2010/11/indian-constitution-a-comprehensive-analysis-loopholes-and-more/
 Conclusion

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. The Constitution of India is a most
comprehensive document. It is a living document, an instrument which makes the
government system work. It is unique in many respects. It is a blend of the rigid, and the
flexible, federal and unitary, and presidential and parliamentary. It attempts a balance
between the Fundamental Rights of the individual on the one hand and the interest of the
society and the need for security of the State on the other. Also, it presents a middle way
between the principles Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy. Our Constitution
has successfully faced many crises and survived. This itself is evidence of its resilience,
dynamism and growth potential.

It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the
structure, procedures, powers and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental
rights, directive principles and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of
any sovereign country in the world, containing 449 articles in 25 parts, 12 schedules, 5
appendices and 101 Amendments.