Indian Constitution

INTRODUCTION

The Constitution which lays down the basic structure of a nation's polity is built on the foundations of certain fundamental values. The vision of our founding fathers and the aim and objectives which they wanted to achieve through the Constitution are contained in the Preamble, the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles. These three may be described as the soul of the Constitution and the testament of founding fathers to the succeeding generations together with the later Part on Fundamental Duties. The vision of socio-economic change through the Constitution is reflected in its Preamble. The Preamble expresses the ideals and aspirations of a renascent India. At independence, emerging out of a long period of foreign domination and oppression under a feudal system, the people were grimly struggling to be reborn into a life of dignity and hope. The scheme of the Constitution for realisation of socio-economic agenda comprises of both the justiciable Fundamental Rights as well as the non-justiciable Directive Principles. The judicial contribution to the synthesis and the integration of Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles in the process of "constitutionalising" social and economic rights has been crucial to the realisation of the Directive Principles not only as a means to effectuate Fundamental Rights but also as a source of laws for a welfare state. (Source: Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, 31st March, 2002) The Constitution places a pre-eminent emphasis on the values of liberty and justice, on treating all citizens as equal before law and on safeguarding the rights of minorities and the oppressed. The people of India derive their existence as a political community from the Constitution, which “we the people”, gave to ourselves and, in the process established the Republic of India. It is because the country is Republic, and not a mere democracy, that the people are enjoined to nurture and indeed celebrate, their linguistic, ethnic, cultural and religious diversity and to ensure that the citizens do not suffer from want and indignity. Though the Indian tapestry of traditional multiculturism nourished by many centuries of assimilative forces has been subjected to occasional fissures, the most diverse nation on earth has been able to overcome those crises and use the innate strength of Indian Republic to uphold the dignity and integrity of India.

Broad Framework of the Constitution

The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. It is a comprehensive document. Apart from dealing with the structure of Government, the Constitution makes detailed provisions for the rights of citizens and other persons in a number of entrenched provisions and for the principles to be followed by the State in the governance of the country, labelled as “Directive Principles of State Policy”. All public authorities – legislative, administrative and judicial derive their powers directly or indirectly from the Constitution which in turn derive its authority from the people.

The preamble to the Constitution sets out the aims and aspirations of the people of India. It is a part of the Constitution. The preamble declares India to be a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic and secures to all its citizens Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It is declared that the Constitution has been given by the people to themselves, thereby affirming the republican character of the polity and the sovereignty of the people.

The polity assured to the people of India by the Constitution is described in the preamble as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic. The expression “Sovereign” signifies that the Republic is externally and internally sovereign. Sovereignty in the strict and narrowest sense of the term implies independence all round, within and without the borders of the country. As discussed above, legal sovereignty is vested in the people of India and political sovereignty is distributed between the Union and the States.

The democratic character of the Indian polity is illustrated by the provisions conferring on the adult citizens the right to vote and by the provisions for elected representatives and responsibility of the executive to the legislature.

The word “Socialist”, added by the 42nd Amendment, aims to secure to its people “justice—social, economic and political”. The Directive Principles of State Policy, contained in Part IV of the Constitution are designed for the achievement of the socialistic goal envisaged in the preamble. The expression “Democratic Republic” signifies that our government is of the people, by the people and for the people.

Federal or Unitary

Constitution of India is basically federal but with certain unitary features. The majority of the Supreme Court judges in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461, were of the view that the federal features form the basic structure of Indian Constitution. However, there are discussions as to whether the Indian Constitution establishes a federal system or it stipulates a unitary form of Government with some basic federal features. Thus, to decide whether Constitution is federal, unitary or quasi federal, it would be better to have a look at the contents of the Constitution.

The essential features of a Federal Polity or System are—dual Government, Distribution of Powers, Supremacy of the Constitution, Independence of Judiciary, Written Constitution, and a rigid procedure for the amendment of the Constitution.

The political system introduced by our Constitution possesses all the aforesaid essentials of a federal polity as both the Union and the State Governments and their respective organs derive their authority from the Constitution and it is not competent for the States to secede from the Union. There is a division of legislative and executive powers between the Union and the State Governments. The Supreme Court stands at the head of our judiciary to guard against the violation of the constitutional provisions. The Supreme Court decides disputes between the Union and the States, or the States inter se and interprets finally the provisions of the Constitution.

The question as to whether the Indian Constitution has a federal form of Government or a unitary constitution with some federal features came up in various cases before the Supreme Court and the High Courts. But in most cases, the observations have been made in a particular context and have to be understood accordingly. The question rests mostly on value judgement i.e. on one’s own philosophy.