SALIENT FEATURES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION 

The following are the salient features of the Indian Constitution

WRITTEN AND VOLUMINOUS CONSTITUTION 

Unlike British Constitution, Indian Constitution is a written Constitution which has been drafted after a prolonged process of discussion by the Constituent Assembly. In the original Constitution, there were 395 Articles, 8 Schedules, 22 Parts and a Preamble. Many changes have been done through various amendments in our Constitution. 

Some of the articles and schedules have also been included, but they have not changed the original form of our Constitution. There are many reasons for the big size of the Constitution like influence of the 1935 Act, vastness of the country and single Constitution for both the centre and the states. Our Constitution not only contains Fundamental Principles of Governance, but also detailed Administrative Provisions. 

DRAWN FROM VARIOUS SOURCES 

In order to provide the best features in the Indian Constitution, the Constituent Assembly drew on many features from various Constitutions of the world. Almost 75% of the features have been taken from the Government of India Act, 1935. Dr Arnbedkar rightly claimed that Indian Constitution has been prepared after ransacking all the Constitutions of the world.

Parliamentary Democracy

Our Constitution has adopted parliamentary system of democracy, so as to represent the pluralist tradition and interest of the country. In a parliamentary form of democracy, there is a close relationship between the legislature and the executive. The Cabinet/Council of Ministers is selected from among the members of legislature. Any person who is not a member of either of the House must have to be a member within 6 months of being sworn in as Minister in the Government. The Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the legislature. They enjoy power till they have support of the legislature.

In this form of democracy, the head of the state is nominal. In our country, the President is the head of the state. Constitutionally,the President enjoys a number of powers, but in practice the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, really exercises these powers. The President acts on the advise of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. Though, the Indian Parliamentary System is based on the British Model, there are some differences too e.g. unlike British Parliament, Indian Parliament is not sovereign. Also, unlike British Crown, post of Indian President is not hereditary i.e. India is a Republic.

FEDERAL POLITY WITH UNITARY FEATURES

Federal Features The Indian Constitution provides a dual system with the Union at the Centre and the States at the periphery, each enjoying powers clearly demarcated by the Constitution. The Constitution of India does not use the term 'federal state', It says that India is a Union of States. It means that the Indian federation is not the result of any agreement among the units and the units cannot secede from it. India is an indestructible union of destructible states; Seventh Schedule provides the division of subjects into three lists namely, theUnion List (100 items), the State List (61 items) and the Concurrent List (52 items).

The Union Government reserves the right to make laws on areas specified in Union List, the State Governments are allowed to make laws in areas specified in the State List and laws in areas listed in the Concurrent List may be made by either, Union or State Government, but in conflicted areas, the Union Government would have the upper hand. The Supreme Court is the apex authority to interpret the Constitution of India as well as decide on disputes arising out of Centre-State relations. Some features of federal government are Written Constitution,Independency of Judiciary, Bi-cameralism, etc.

Unitary Features Although, India possesses several federal features, but it has many unitary features also, like Single Constitution. The Uniform and Single Citizenship, Power of Parliament to change the territorial extent of states even without the consent of the state concerned. The President can declare national emergency during which the Parliament can make laws on subjects otherwise, exclusively under the State List. The residuary powers are with the centre. Judges of the High Courts are appointed by the President in consultation with the governors. The above features, indicates the unitary nature of our federalism. Therefore, it is said by KC Wheare that India has a quasi-federal set-up.Morris Jones called it as Bargaining Federalism and Granville Austine called it as Cooperative Federalism.

AMENDABILITY OF CONSTITUTION

Indian Constitution is a blend of both rigidity and flexibility. Rigidity comes from some of the rigorous procedures provided for amending some features of the Constitution. Amendments to the Constitution are made by Indian Parliament, the procedure for which is laid down in Article 368. It provides two kinds of amendments

1. Amendments with special majority i.e. a two-third majority of . . members of each house present and voting a majority of more than

50% of total membership of each house and ratification by 50% of states.

2. Some other provisions can be amended by a special majority of the and with the ratification by half of the total states. Some provision of the Constitution can be amended by simple majority of the Parliament in ordinary legislative process. These amendments do not come under article 368.

INTEGRATED AND INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY

Our Constitution provides for a single integrated and Independent judiciary with Supreme Court at its head. Each State has a High Court (except few states, which have a common High Court) with administrative

control over the sub-ordinate judiciary. The single system of courts enforces both central as well as state laws. This feature is unlike USA

where the federal court enforces only federal laws.

The Constitution provides for provisions to maintain independence of the judiciary such as security of their service, prohibition on discussion on the conduct of judges in Parliament except during the procedure for removal,charging the salaries of judges on Consolidated Fund of India, etc. The Supreme Court determines the constitutional validity of all laws made by the legislatures.

It can reject any law which is found to be unconstitutional such system popularly known as Judicial Review.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Fundamental Rights are defined as basic human freedoms, which every Indian citizen has the right to enjoy for a proper and harmonious

development of personality. Fundamental Rights are one of the most important features of the Constitution of India.

Motilal Nehru committee had demanded a bill of right as far back as in 1928. It contains six rights. Fundamental Rights are justiciable and are protected by the judiciary. The Constitution seeks to strike a balance between individual freedom and social interests through the Fundamental Rights. They are contained in Part-111 of the Constitution of India.

DlRECTlVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY

The Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines to the Central and State Governments of India, that are to be kept in mind, while framing laws and policies. These provisions are contained in Part I' of the Constitution of India. They are not enforceable by any court, but the principles laid down therein are considered fundamental to the governance of the country. It is the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws to establish a just society in the country.

FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES

The Fundamental Duties of citizens were added

to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment Act

in 1976, upon the recommendations of the

Swaran Singh Committee that was

constituted by the government earlier that year.

Originally ten in number, the Fundamental

Duties were increased to eleven by the

86th Amendment in 2002, which added a duty

on every parent or guardian to ensure that their

child or ward has been provided opportunities

for education between the age of 6 and 14 years.

SECULAR STATE

The Constitution makes India a secular state. It

means there is no official religion of the state. It

follows the philosophy of Sarva Dharma

Sambhav. It implies that citizens are free to

profess practise and propagate any religion. It

keeps the idea of religious freedom for all.

Secularism refers to this separation of religion

from the state.

UNIVERSAL ADULT FRANCHISE

The Indian Constitution has adopted Universal

Adult Franchise as a basis of election to the Lok

Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies.

Every citizen who is above 18 years of age

(earlier it was 21 years but reduced as per 61st

Amendment Act, 1989) has the right to vote

without any discrimination on the basis of caste,race, religion, sex, literacy etc.

SINGLE CITIZENSHIP

The Constitution of India recognise only single

citizenship. Unlike USA, there is no State

Citizenship. Every Indian enjoys the same

Rights of Citizenship without consideration of

the state he belongs to. This provision would

help in promoting unity and integrity of the

nation. But there is an exception to this general

principle, Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir

(Article 370) has its own Constitution as well as

laws related to citizenship.

EMERGENCY PROVISIONS

Part XVII of Indian Constitution deals with

emergency provisions. The Constitution

envisages three types of emergencies i.e.

National Emergency (Article 352), State

Emergency- President's rule (Article 356) and Financial Emergency (Article 360).

CONSTITUTIONAL BODIES

Constitutional bodies in India are the bodies or institutions that have its name mention in

Indian Constitution. It derives power directly from the Constitution. Any type of change in mechanism of these bodies needs amendment.

Names are as follows

Election Commission (EC)

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)

State Public Service Commission (SPSC)

Finance Commission (FC)

National Commission for SC's

National Commission for ST'S

Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities

Comptroller and Auditor

General of India (CAG)

Attorney General of India

Advocate General of the State 

Note Each topic will be deal separately.

THREE-TIER GOVERNMENT

Originally, the Indian Constitution provided for only Two-Tier Government. Though Article 40 mentions contain organisation of Village

Panchayat, since it .was not under enforceable part of the Constitution, this provision was

not effective by implemented.By the 73rd and 74th Amendment Act of 1992,Three-Tier Government was given constitutional recognition.

It added Part IX and IXA and also added Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules to the Constitution respectively,which contains power and responsibilities of Panchayats and Municipalities.