Jamwal Mahadeep Singh
The greater our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance unfolds - John F. Kennedy. Blinding ignorance does mislead us. Very few of us know much about Constitution of India, being a complex and distant document, not easily understood and nor of much interest to most of us being too stretched. It is premeditated as a divine abode of attorney-at-law. It characterize all demeanor of the political philosophy that a country has and more important than anything else. The Constitution of India is the basic document to govern the India, which had not come into existence overnight or by an exercise of few people of political ideology but an elaborate and vigorous exercise undertaken by the best available intelligentsia of the time. The original hand written constitution of India, by Prem Behari Narain Raizada, little known about the man, in Hindi and English in flowing italic style with beautiful illumination by Nanda Lal Bose, Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and other artists beautifully calligraphy is kept in special helium-filled cases in the library of the parliament of India. It is longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world.
This precious document has been bestowed upon us by Constituent Assembly of India that was proposed in 1934 by Sh. Manabendra Nath Roy, the pioneer of the Communist Party of India. It became official demand of Indian National Congress in 1935 which was acceded by British in 1940, through a document called as 'August Offer'. In framing of Indian constitution, National Congress was sharply divided on fundamental Issues. Simla conference on the issue did not yield any final result. Congress opposed the proposal on basis of (1) Groping of provinces (2) The formation of Executive Council (3) The proportion of Election i.e 1/10 of the Legislative members be reduced to 1/5th and lastly weak central Government. Muslim League demanding separate constitution making body to Muslim majority province. This compelled the cabinet Mission to put forth its own proposal as Cabinet Mission plan? on May 16, 1946 regarding basic form of constitution and constitution making body. The Constituent Assembly was established while India was under British Rule, following negotiations with The Cabinet Mission of British Kingdom. Provincial elections to elect members of Constituent Assembly were held early in 1946. The Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British Indian Provinces were completed by July- August 1946. The Muslim league won 71 seats; Congress won 208; Akalis group of 5 unionists from Punjab won 3 seats each; Communist and schedule caste one each. The Interim Government was formed on 2nd September 1946 from newly Constituent Assembly. The total members of the Constituent Assembly were 389 and of this number 292 were elected members, 93 represented by the princely states and 4 were from the Chief Commissioner Provinces of Delhi-Ajmer, Mewar, Coorg and British Baluchistan. The Hon'ble Members from J&K princely states were S/Sh. Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Mirza Mohmmad Afzal, Maulana Mohammad Sayeed Masoodi and Moti Ram Baigra (from Udhampur). Proceedings of Constituent Assembly, as published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, suggest that fifteen women Members were present throughout the tenure of the Constituent Assembly. These include Ammu Swaminathan, Annie Mascrene, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Dakshayani Veleyudan, G. Durgabai, Hansa Jivraj Mehta, Kamla Chaudhri, Leela Ray, Malati Chowdhry, Purnima Banerji, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Renuka Ray, Sarojini Naidu, Sucheta Kriplani and Vijayalakshmi Pandit.
Some of the Principal Committees and their Chairman's associated with Constituent Assembly were: 1. Committee on Rules of Procedure, Dr. Rajindra Prasad. 2. Drafting Committee, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. 3. Adhoc Committee on National Flag, Dr. Rajindra Prasad. 4. States Committee, Union Powers Committee and Union Constitution Committee, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. 5. Committee on the functions of Constituent Assembly, G. V. Mavlanker. 6. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas, Vallabhbhai Patel. The Assembly held eleven sessions. First Session, 9-23 December, 1946. Second Session, 20-25 January, 1947. Third Session, 28 April-2 May, 1947. Fourth Session, 14-31 July, 1947. Fifth Session, 14-30 August, 1947. Sixth Session, 27 January, 1948. Seventh Session, 4 November, 1948- 8 January, 1949. Eighth Session, 16 May-16 June, 1949. Ninth Session, 30 July - 18 September, 1949. Tenth Session, 6-17 October, 1949. Eleventh Session, 14 - 26 November, 1949. The Assembly made its sitting for a period of 166 days during the period of two years, eleven months and eighteen days.114 days were spent on the consideration of the Draft Constitution. The National Flag was adopted on 22 July, 1947 and on 24 January, 1950, "Jana Gana Mana" adopted as National Anthem and Dr. Rajindra Parsad elected as the first President of India.
The Constituent Assembly began its first session on 9th of December 1946 with 208 members attending and demanding a separate State. Sh. Sachchidananda Sinha was elected as temporary President of the Assembly. The 'All India Muslim league' popularized as 'Muslim League' founded on 30-06-1906 with presiding leaders as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan and others boycotted this meeting. On 11-12-1946 Dr. Rajinder Parsad was elected as President, H C Mukerjee as Vice-President and Justice Benegal Narsing Rao as constitutional adviser. Justice Benegal Narsing Rao prepared an initial draft of the constitution on the reports and his research into the Constitution of other Nations. Justice Benegal Narsing Rao was later appointed as permanent Judge in the permanent court of International Justice in Hague. On 13-12-1946 'Objective Resolution' was introduced by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, laying down the underlying principles of the constitution, that was unanimously adopted on 22-01-1947. It guided the constitution making process. However as a result of partition under Mountbatten Plan, a separate Constituent Assembly was established in Pakistan on 3 June, 1947. The representatives of the areas incorporated into Pakistan i.e. delegations from Sind, East Bengal, Baluchistan, West Punjab and the North West Frontier Provinces, ceased to be Members of the Constituent Assembly of India . As a result, the membership of the Constituent Assembly of India reduced to 299. These included 229 members from provinces and 70 from princely states including nine women. The break-up of the members of Constituent Assembly of India was as follow: 1. Madras 49. 2. Bombay 21. 3. West Bengal 19. 4. United Provinces 55. 5. East Punjab 12. 6. Bihar 36. 7. CP & Berar 17. 8. Assam eight. 9. Orissa nine. 10. Delhi one. 11. Ajmer Merwara one and 12. Coorg 1.
The main features of the principles of the constitution unanimously adopted on 22-01-1947, were; 1. The constituent Assembly solemnly resolves to constitute India into an Independent, Sovereign, and Democratic Republic setup for India. 2. The Indian Provinces and other parts of India willing to be a part of free and Sovereign India shall collectively form a Union of India. 3. All parts of independent India and their ruling institutions derive their power from the people of India. 4. All the people of India, without any distinction, shall be entitled to political and economic equality and equality of status and opportunity and the right to freedom of thought, belief, expression, profession and worship. 5. There shall be special provisions for the protection and development of backward
Late in the evening of 14 August, 1947 the Assembly met in the Constitution hall (presently Parliament Hall) and at the stroke of midnight, took over as the Legislative Assembly of an Independent India. On 15 August 1947 Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan became independent Nations and members of the Constituent Assembly, who had not withdrawn to Karachi, became India's Parliament.
On 29 August, 1947, the Assembly set up a Drafting Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to prepare a draft for India Constitution. While deliberating on the Draft Constitution, the Assembly moved, discussed and disposed of as many as 2,473 amendments out of a total of 7,635. The Constitution of India was adopted on 26 November, 1949. The last sitting of the Assembly was held on 24 January 1950, when the Hon'ble Members appended their signatures to it. A total number of 284 members actually appended their signatures. The Constitution of India came into force on 26 January, 1950 and the assembly ceased to exist, transforming itself into the 'Provisional Parliament of India' until after the first elections under the new Constitution in 1952. There after New Parliament came into existence.
The majority of the Provisions of the Constitution are derived from the Government of India Act, 1935 and Constitutions of various Countries. The features so adopted are: 1. GOI Act 1935 - Federal Structure, Office of Governor, Judiciary Division, and Service Commission. 2. Britain - Parliamentary System, Rule of Law, Single citizenship, Office of CAG, Legislation, Cabinet & Government. 3. Ireland - Directive Principals of State Policy, Election process of President and nomination of members to the Rajya Sbha by the President. 4. United States of America - Preamble, Impeachment of the President, Removal of High Court and Supreme Court Judges, Fundamental Rights, Independent Judiciary. 5. Canada -Appointment of State Governors by the center and advisory/ Review role of Supreme Court. 6. Australia - Concept of Concurrent List, Joint sitting of two houses. 7. USSR (Russia) - Fundamental duties, constitutionally mandated Planning Commission to oversee the development of the economy. 8. France - Concept of 'Republic' Ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (Contained in the Preamble). 10. Germany - Emergency provisions and suspension of Fundamental Rights during Emergency. 11. South Africa - Elections of the Rajya Sabha and Amendment of the Constitution. 12. Japan - Concept of procedure established by Law'. The best provisions were selected from different source since the adoption of the Constitution on 26 January, 1950. Since then 100 amendments have been effected. The First Amendment on 18 June, 1951. Some of the important Amendments are: 1. Amendment 2 on 1st May 1953; removed upper limit for a parliamentary constitution. 2. Amendment 6 on 11 September, 1956: to amend the Union & State lists with respect to raise the Taxes. 3. Amendment 15 on 5 October, 1963: to raise retirement age of High Court Judges. 4. Amendment 19 on 11 December, 1966 to abolish the Election Tribunal and enable trial of Election Petitions by the regular High Courts. 5 Amendment 26 on 28 December, 1971 to abolish Privy Purse paid to former rulers of Princely States. 6. Amendment 31 on 17 October, 1973 to increase size of Parliament from 525 to 546 seats, increased seats going to newly States formed in North East India. 7. Amendment 38 on 1st of August 1975 to enhance the powers of President and Governors to pass Ordinances. 8. Amendment 39 on 10 August, 1975, An amendment designed to negate the Judgment of Allahabad High Court invalidating Prime Minister Smt. Indra Gandhi's election to Parliament and placing restrictions on Judicial scrutiny of post of Prime Minister. 9. Amendment 42 on 1st April, 1977 to curtail Fundamental Rights, imposing Fundamental Duties and changes the basic structure of the Constitution by making India "Socialist Secular Republic". 10. Amendment 77 on 17 June, 1995 a technical Amendment to protect reservations to SC/ST employees in promotions. 11. Amendment 89 on 28 September, 2003, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was bifurcated into two as National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. 12. Amendment 91 on 1st January 2004 to restrict the size of Council of Ministers to 15% of Legislative members and to strengthen Anti - Defection Law. 13. Amendment 92 on 7th of January, 2004 to include Bodo, Dogri, Santali and Maithali as official language. 14. Amendment 99 on 13 April, 2015 - provides for the formation of a National Judicial Appointments Commission. (The amendment is in Toto quashed by Supreme Court on 16 October, 2015). 15. Amendment 100 0n 1st August 2015 to exchange certain enclave territories with Bangladesh and conferment of Citizen Rights to residents of enclaves consequent to signing of Land Boundary Agreement Treaty between India and Bangladesh. This is a hard reality that the constitution throws back certain values that forms the core of the political system, these values in the form of the 'Fundamental Rights' (Article 14-32) guarantee civil rights to all Indians, and prevents the State from encroaching on individual liberty. The 'Directive Principles' (Article 36-51) are guide lines to the government to be kept in citation while framing laws and policies for its citizen. The 'Fundamental Duties' of citizens added to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976. No doubt there are surely good parts in the constitution based on the classical liberal philosophy of freedom, but it is lacking some vital provisions. As regards to the election process, article 324 provides superintendence, direction and control of elections, article 325 provides inclusion of names in electoral roll and no person shall be included or excluded from the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste and sex, article 326 provides the adult suffrage.
I wonder how some most required pages were left blank and unwritten of most required provisions that would have provided real face to the parliamentary democracy of the country such as; 1. An illiterate can not apply for a job of even fourth class but he is constitutionally qualified after being elected to make law for the most literate community of the country. 2. It is a sordid affair in our country, well protected by the constitution, that a person applying for a job of fourth class, should not be guilty of any crime, whereas a person guilty of any crime can fight elections from the jail for a constitutional status. 3. It authorizes elected one to remain unbridled for the full tenure with no provision to call them back or take them to task for their non-performance/under-performance. whereas a government employee of marginal post can be tasked by way of suspension, removal, dismissal, with holding/stoppage of salaries. 4. The constitution is toothless for those having criminal history, muscle and money power in contesting and winning elections. 5. The constitution lacks provision, to desist the defeated contestants in direct election, to be inducted in government formation or in nomination and election to the upper house. 6. The voters are deprived of the provision as enshrined in section 16 of the General Clause Act, 1897 that provides power to appointing authority to suspend or dismiss any person appointed by that authority. But here voters have only power to elect a representative and then electors have to dance to the tunes of elected one for the full tenure.
Concluding with the words of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru 'That the first task of the Assembly is to free India through a new constitution to feed the starving people, and to clothe the naked masses, and to give every Indian the fullest opportunity to develop himself according to his capacity --- if we cannot solve this problem soon, all our paper constitutions will become useless and purposeless'. The prevailing scenario of the country is to be viewed by the present Government, in view of the concern, how much they have succeeded in achieving this target. |
