Constitution :
Constitution is a document of rules and principles that gives information about the powers of various organs of government and the rights of citizens. Along with this, the boundaries of the government are also determined.
There are two types of constitution
👉 Written Constitution - India
👉 Unwritten Constitution - England
Need and importance of constitution:
👉 The Constitution harmonizes:
The constitution harmonizes the different states. The constitution instils confidence in the citizens that if their rights are taken away, they can go to court. There are many basic rules in the constitution. If these basic rules are not there, then the citizen will feel insecure, so the first task of the constitution is to provide such a set of basic rules, which will maintain the confidence of the members of the society.
👉 Places limits on the powers of the government:
One of the functions of the constitution is to set the limits of the rules imposed by the government on its citizens. For example, the government cannot arbitrarily arrest any citizen.
👉 Information about different parts:
The constitution gives information about the various organs of the government, such as the legislature, executive and judiciary.
👉 Decision making power:
The constitution decides who will make laws, how laws will be enforced and how the people's representatives will be elected. For example, the Indian Constitution makes it clear that most of the laws will be made by the Parliament and how the Parliament will be constituted is also described in the Indian Constitution.
👉 Aspirations and goals of the society:
In the old constitution, only the powers of the government were described, but the modern constitution also expresses the positive actions of the government and the aspirations of the society. Example = Indian constitution requires that there should be no caste discrimination in the society. Similarly, the Constitution of South Africa prohibits apartheid. The most important merit of the Constitution is that it is the basic identity of the society.
Universal adult suffrage:
After a certain age, the right of every person to vote without any discrimination is called "universal adult suffrage".
In India this age is 18 years or above. Here all citizens have been given the right to vote without any discrimination.
How was the Indian Constitution made?
👉 The constitution of India began to be made during the British rule. It took 2 years 11 months and 18 days to make it.
👉 It was created by an organization called "Constituent Assembly".
👉 The Constituent Assembly was duly inaugurated on Monday, 9 December 1946 at 11:00 am.
👉 The Constituent Assembly met for a total of 166 days.
👉 The first meeting was held on 9 December 1946 in which Dr. Satchidanand Sinha was elected as the Provisional President of the Constituent Assembly.
👉 On December 11, 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected the President of the Constituent Assembly and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, the President of the Constitution Drafting Committee.
👉 On 13 December 1946, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru presented the 'Objectives Resolution' of the Constitution.
👉 In this, the outline of the sovereign democratic republic of India was presented, which was accepted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 January 1947.
👉 The members of the Constituent Assembly were elected by indirect method by the members of the provincial assemblies established in 1935.
Recommendations/Proposals of Cabinet Mission:
👉 Each province, princely state or group of princely states were given seats in proportion to their population. The ratio of one seat was kept for a population of 1 lakh.
👉 The number of members of the Constituent Assembly was fixed at 389. Out of which 292 representatives came from 11 provinces under the Governors of British India, 4 representatives from Chief Commissioners' 4 provinces (Delhi, Ajmer-Marwar Coorg and British Balochistan) and 93 representatives came from princely states.
👉 The seats in each province were divided into three major communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their population.
👉 The members of the provincial assemblies were elected by the system of proportional representation and the system of single transition vote.
👉 The method of election of the representatives of the princely states was decided in consultation with them.
Form of Constituent Assembly:
👉 The Constituent Assembly initially had 389 members. According to the Mountbatten plan of 3 June 1947, the number of members was reduced to 299 after partition. Out of which a total of 284 members signed the constitution on 26 November 1949.
👉 The members of the Constituent Assembly were not elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage, but an effort was made to represent all communities.
👉 There were 28 members of the Scheduled Castes in the Constituent Assembly.
👉 The Constitution of India spoke of one citizenship and the interests of minorities were given importance.
👉 Congress dominated the Constituent Assembly.
👉 82% of the seats belonged to the Congress but the Congress was a diversified party that represented many sections.
The style of functioning of the Constituent Assembly:
👉 Differences over powers
The members of the Constituent Assembly kept each other's interests in mind while making the constitution. The members often differed on some subjects, such as what power should be given to the judiciary, how should be the relation between the central government and the state government etc.
👉 Universal adult suffrage
There was only one such provision in the Constituent Assembly which passed without any debate. That was universal adult suffrage.
👉 Discussion and Reasoned Debate
The members of the Constituent Assembly used to have serious discussions and discussions on every subject and keep in mind all the interests of the society.
👉 Detailed Studies and Publications
The Constituent Assembly was working for the public interest. In the Constituent Assembly, each article was discussed in detail and in detail and they were published in rough volumes.
👉 Decisions on many provisions were taken by division of votes.
Provisions taken from the constitution of different countries:
👉 British Constitution
➡️ Decision to win the election on the basis of maximum votes
➡️ Parliamentary form of government
➡️ The idea of rule of law
➡️ The office of the Speaker and his role in the legislature
➡️ Law making method
👉 America's Constitution
➡️ List of Fundamental Rights
➡️ Power of judicial review and independence of judiciary
👉 Constitution of Ireland
➡️ Directive Principles of State Policy
👉 Constitution of France
➡️ The principle of liberty, equality, fraternity
👉 Canadian Constitution
➡️ Form of a quasi-federal government
➡️ Theory of Residual Powers
👉 Constitution of South Africa
➡️ PIL
👉 Brazil Constitution
➡️ Ideology of Local Government
👉 Soviet Union (Russia)
➡️ Fundamental Duties
👉 Australia's constitution
➡️ Language of Preamble
➡️ Concurrent List
➡️The division of power between the centre-state
👉 The Constitution of Germany
➡️ emergency
