Unit I Introduction to Indian constitution

Historical background of indian
constitution

Historical background of Indian
constitution
 Before 1947, India was divided into two main entities –
The British India which consisted of 11 provinces and
the Princely states ruled by Indian princes under
subsidiary alliance policy. The two entities merged
together to form the Indian Union, but many of the
legacy systems in British India is followed even now.
The historical underpinnings and evolution of the
India Constitution can be traced to many regulations
and acts passed before Indian Independence.

Indian System of Administration
 Indian democracy is a Parliamentary form of
democracy where the executive is responsible to the
Parliament. The Parliament has two houses –
Loksabha and Rajyasabha. Also, the type of
governance is Federal, ie there is separate executive
and legislature at Center and States. We also have self-
governance at local government levels. All these
systems owe their legacy to the British administration.
Let us see the historical background of the Indian
Constitution and its development through the years.

Indian System of Administration

Regulating Act of 1773
 The first step was taken by the British Parliament to control
and regulate the affairs of the East India Company in India.
 It designated the Governor of Bengal (Fort William) as
the Governor-General (of Bengal).
 Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of
Bengal.
 Executive Council of the Governor-General was established
(Four members). There was no separate legislative council.
 It subordinated the Governors of Bombay and Madras to
the Governor-General of Bengal.
 The Supreme Court was established at Fort William
(Calcutta) as the Apex Court in 1774.
 It prohibited servants of the company from engaging in any
private trade or accepting bribes from the natives.
 Court of Directors ( the governing body of the company)
should report its revenue.

Pitt’s India Act of 1784
 Distinguished between commercial and political
functions of the company.
 Court of Directors for Commercial functions and
Board of Control for political affairs.
 Reduced the strength of the Governor General’s
council to three members.
 Placed the Indian affairs under the direct control of
the British Government.
 The companies territories in India were called “the
British possession in India”.
 Governor’s councils were established in Madras and
Bombay.

Charter Act of 1813
 The Company’s monopoly over Indian trade
terminated; Trade with India open to all British
subjects.

Charter Act of 1833
 Governor-General (of Bengal) became the
Governor-General of India.
 First Governor-General of India was Lord William
Bentick.
 This was the final step towards centralization
in British India.
 Beginning of a Central legislature for India as the act
also took away legislative powers of Bombay and
Madras provinces.
 The Act ended the activities of the East India Company
as a commercial body and it became a purely
administrative body.

Charter Act of 1853
 The legislative and executive functions of
the Governor-General’s Council were separated.
 6 members in Central legislative council. Four out of
six members were appointed by the provisional
governments of Madras, Bombay, Bengal and Agra.
 It introduced a system of open competition as the basis
for the recruitment of civil servants of the Company
(Indian Civil Service opened for all).

Government of India Act of 1858

 The rule of Company was replaced by the rule of the Crown
in India.
 The powers of the British Crown were to be exercised by
the Secretary of State for India
 He was assisted by the Council of India, having 15
members
 He was vested with complete authority and control over the
Indian administration through the Viceroy as his agent
 The Governor-General was made the Viceroy of India.
 Lord Canning was the first Viceroy of India.
 Abolished Board of Control and Court of Directors.

Indian Councils Act of 1861
 It introduced for the first time Indian representation in the
institutions like Viceroy’s executive+legislative council
(non-official). 3 Indians entered the Legislative council.
 Legislative councils were established in Center and
provinces.
 It provided that the Viceroy’s Executive Council should
have some Indians as the non-official members while
transacting the legislative businesses.
 It accorded statutory recognition to the portfolio system.
 Initiated the process of decentralisation by restoring the
legislative powers to the Bombay and the Madras
Provinces.

India Council Act of 1892
 Introduced indirect elections (nomination).
 Enlarged the size of the legislative councils.
 Enlarged the functions of the Legislative Councils and
gave them the power of discussing the Budget and
addressing questions to the Executive.

Indian Councils Act of 1909
 This Act is also known as the Morley- Minto Reforms.
 Direct elections to legislative councils; first attempt at
introducing a representative and popular element.
 It changed the name of the Central Legislative Council to
the Imperial Legislative Council.
 The member of the Central Legislative Council was
increased to 60 from 16.
 Introduced a system of communal representation for
Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate electorate’.
 Indians for the first time in Viceroys executive council.
(Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, as the law member)

Government of India Act of
1919
 This Act is also known as the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms.
 The Central subjects were demarcated and separated from those of the
Provincial subjects.
 The scheme of dual governance, ‘Dyarchy’, was introduced in the
Provincial subjects.
 Under the dyarchy system, the provincial subjects were divided into
two parts – transferred and reserved. On reserved subjects, Governor
was not responsible to the Legislative council.
 The Act introduced, for the first time, bicameralism at the center.
 Legislative Assembly with 140 members and Legislative
council with 60 members.
 Direct elections.
 The Act also required that the three of the six members of the Viceroy’s
Executive Council (other than Commander-in-Chief) were to
be Indians.
 Provided for the establishment of the Public Service Commission.

 The Act provided for the establishment of an All-India Federation
consisting of the Provinces and the Princely States as units, though the
envisaged federation never came into being.
 Three Lists: The Act divided the powers between the Centre and the
units into items of three lists, namely the Federal List, the Provincial
List and the Concurrent List.
 The Federal List for the Centre consisted of 59 items, the Provincial List
for the provinces consisted of 54 items and the Concurrent List for both
consisted of 36 items
 The residuary powers were vested with the Governor-General.
 The Act abolished the Dyarchy in the Provinces and introduced
‘Provincial Autonomy’.
 It provided for the adoption of Dyarchy at the Centre.
 Introduced bicameralism in 6 out of 11 Provinces.
 These six Provinces were Assam, Bengal, Bombay, Bihar, Madras and
the United Province.
 Provided for the establishment of Federal Court.
 Abolished the Council of India.

Indian Independence Act of 1947

Indian Independence Act of 1947
 It declared India as an Independent and Sovereign
State.
 Established responsible Governments at both the
Centre and the Provinces.
 Designated the Viceroy India and the provincial
Governors as the Constitutional (normal heads).
 It assigned dual functions (Constituent
and Legislative) to the Constituent Assembly
and declared this dominion legislature as a sovereign
body.

Making of the Indian Constitution
• December is a remarkable time in the journey of India
to become an independent country because it was
exactly 70 years back on December 9th (1946) that the
Constituent assembly of India sat together for the first
time to draft the constitution. And not just the
constitution but India also acquired its National flag,
Anthem and a lot more which accelerated the journey
of attaining independence.

Constitution of India
 It is a well-established fact that the Constitution of India is
the most supreme law of the country and the torchbearer
of fundamental political code, powers, and duties of
government, procedure, directive principles, and duties of
the citizen. Even the Parliament is not allowed to
overpower the Constitution because of its constitutional
supremacy over parliamentary supremacy and the fact that
it was framed through constituent assembly which was
headed by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and not Parliament and
its members.
 Sovereignty, sociality, secularity is the three claims of the
Constitution and it also assures justice, equity, and liberty
to people residing in his country.

Initiation of making of the
Constitution
 The beginning of the idea to draft a constitution
came up in the year 1928 when the All Parties
Conference summoned a committee in order to
draft the Constitution and that report came to be
known as the Nehru Report.
 In the year 1934, the idea to form a constituent
assembly was proposed by Mahendra Nath. Since
the majority of colonial India functioned under
British rule from 1857 to 1947, as a result, the same
legislation continued from 1947 to 1950 because the
states were the dominion of Britain for these many
years.

Constitution
 Before the commencement of the Constitution, there
were legislations which governed the functioning of
Indian provinces like the Indian Independence Act 1947
and Government of India Act 1935 but these legislations
were repealed by the Constitution after its
commencement i.e., from 26 January 1950.
 On 14th of August 1947 a meeting of the assembly was
held which proposed committees that started working
on the draft and finally the committee was appointed
and a revised constitution was prepared by the
committee and it submitted to the assembly on 4th
November 1947.

Constitution
 Some major committees contributing were- the Drafting
committee headed by B.R. Ambedkar, Union powers
committee headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Union Constitution
committee headed by Sardar Vallabh Patel, Advisory
committee on Fundamental rights headed by Sardar Patel,
and other sub-committees.
 There were few amendments which were suggested and the
revised draft constitution was discussed. The final session
of the assembly which was convened on the 4th of January
1950 was the day when each member of the assembly
signed two copies of the constitution, one was in Hindi and
the other was in English. Also, a fact, our constitution is the
only constitution which was hand written and was pretty
much filled with designs by artists.

Constitution
 The constitution was published at Dehradun and the final constitution took
almost 5 years to publish. Before adopting the Constitution, the assembly held
eleven sessions in 165 days. Since the constitution was adopted on the 26th of
November, we also know that day as the National Law Day or Constitution Day.
This day is also known as the day where the significance of the constitution is
spread through the thoughts of Ambedkar. The cost estimated for the making
of the constitution was 6.3 crores.
 The 26th of January 1930 was declared as Independence Day by the Congress
but India did not get Independence until 1947 and did not become a republic
until 1950. The reason it was considered to become a republic in 1950 was due
to the enactment of the Constitution. Even when the country was free from the
British Raj still, we used to follow the British monarch which was replaced by
India’s newly adapted constitution and so, India became a Republic.

Constitution
 The Constitution of India is not just a book of laws but it is
a living document which carries the guidelines to make the
working of the government efficient and also puts down
the basic framework that defines fundamental political
principles and it also lays down the structure, power,
procedures, etc. When the constitution was commenced, it
had 395 articles in 22 portions and 8 schedules and
consisted of almost 80,000 words.

Philosophy and Ideals of Indian
Constitution
 The constitution of India is the supreme law of India; it lays
down the frame work defining fundamental political
principles, establishes the structure, procedure, powers
and duties of government institutions and sets our
fundamental rights, directive principles and the duties of
citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any
sovereign country in the world.
 Dr. BhimraoAmbedkar was the chairperson of the Drafting
Committee, adopted by Constituent Assembly on Nov
26th, 1949, and came into effect on Jan 26th, 1950. This
constitution is a living document, an instrument which
makes the government system work.

National Values As Enshrined In
Constitution Of India And Its Importance
 Today, there is great deterioration in our ethical standards,
loss of moral and social values resulting in great problems
and dilemmas of families, society, nation and ultimately
entire world. The constitution of India is the great source of
human values and it emphasizes on promoting humanism
through its legislative, executive and judiciary institutions.
Education as supposed to be a powerful instrument of
social change, has to be restructured and reoriented to
promote the human values as enunciated in the
constitution of India, because the obvious need of
mankind is to live in harmony and to nurture creativity so
as to realize the goals of inclusive society.

National Values As Enshrined In
Constitution Of India And Its Importance
 Values enshrined in the Constitution of India points
towards the principles of equality and social justice and
appreciation of cultural values of each other, dignity of all
individuals etc. Values such as equality, fraternity and
justice can promote inclusively where all members of the
society feel included irrespective of their color, culture,
economic or social background, caste, religion, gender or
community. The culture of inclusivity is particularly
relevant and important in the context of our society, nation
and making education, a right for all children. Education,
its values and its relevance and reflections, finds an
important place in the Constitution of India.

Theme of a Constitution
 Preamble is like a mini constitution. It reminds us the
noble and grand vision of our constitution makers. The
preamble is also known as the soul, spirit and backbone of
the Indian Constitution. Without reading the preamble
makes no sense in reading the constitution. It is the
preamble which gives a brief idea about why the
constitution has been prepared. The preamble can be
classified into three parts:-
 According to the first part, the people of India solemnly
resolved India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular,
Democratic, Republic, each and every word of the
preamble is wisely chosen and arranged in such a way that
by reading the preamble makes a clear picture of India’s
stand towards its citizen.

Theme of a Constitution
 The first part explains about:-
 The word Sovereign emphasized that there is no authority outside India
on which the country is in any way dependent.
 By the word Socialist, the constitution means that the achievement of
Socialistic pattern of society through democratic means.

India is a Secular country and follows age old Indian philosophy Sarva
Dharma Sambhav.
 The term Democratic refers not only to political democracy but also to
social and economical democracy. Democracy means that the ruler
elected by the people of India, which follows a system of “Representative
Democracy.”
 The word Republic denotes a government where no one holds public
power as proprietary right, means the head of the state or country is an
elected representative and not the hereditary monarch.

History of the Preamble to Indian
Constitution
 Preamble declares India to be a sovereign,
socialist, secular and democratic republic. The
objectives stated by the Preamble are to secure justice,
liberty, equality to all citizens and promote fraternity
to maintain unity and integrity of the nation.
 Jawaharlal Nehru – The preamble of India was
derived from its draft which was called the 'Objective
Resolutions'. This draft was written and introduced to
the Constituent Assembly by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13th
December 1946. The Constituent Assembly adopted
this draft on 22 January 1947.

Key words in the Preamble
 Sovereign: The term means that India has its own independent
authority and it is not a dominion of any other external power. In the
country, the legislature has the power to make laws which are subject to
certain limitations.
 Socialist: The term means the achievement of socialist ends
through democratic means. It holds faith in a mixed economy where
both private and public sectors co-exist side by side.
 It was added in the Preamble by 42nd Amendment, 1976.
 Secular: The term means that all the religions in India get equal
respect, protection and support from the state.
 It was incorporated in the Preamble by 42nd Constitutional
Amendment, 1976.
 Democratic: The term implies that the Constitution of India has
an established form of Constitution which gets its authority from the
will of the people expressed in an election.
 Republic: The term indicates that the head of the state is elected
by the people. In India, the President of India is the elected head of the
state.

Objectives of the Indian Constitution
 The Constitution is the supreme law and it helps
to maintain integrity in the society and to promote
unity among the citizens to build a great nation.
 The main objective of the Indian Constitution is
to promote harmony throughout the nation

The factors which help in achieving
this objective are:
 Justice: It is necessary to maintain order in society that is promised
through various provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
of State Policy provided by the Constitution of India. It comprises three
elements, which is social, economic, and political.
 Social Justice – Social justice means that the Constitution wants to create a
society without discrimination on any grounds like caste, creed, gender,
religion, etc.
 Economic Justice – Economic Justice means no discrimination can be
caused by people on the basis of their wealth, income, and economic status.
Every person must be paid equally for an equal position and all people must
get opportunities to earn for their living.

Political Justice – Political Justice means all the people have an equal, free
and fair right without any discrimination to participate in political
opportunities.

The factors which help in
achieving this objective are:
 Equality: The term ‘Equality’ means no section of society has
any special privileges and all the people have given equal
opportunities for everything without any discriminations.
Everyone is equal before the law.
 Liberty: The term ‘Liberty’ means freedom for the people
to choose their way of life, have political views and behavior
in society. Liberty does not mean freedom to do anything, a
person can do anything but in the limit set by the law.
 Fraternity: The term ‘Fraternity’ means a feeling of
brotherhood and an emotional attachment with the country
and all the people. Fraternity helps to promote dignity and
unity in the nation.

Status of Preamble
 The preamble being part of the Constitution is discussed several times in the
Supreme Court. It can be understood by reading the following two cases.
 Berubari Case: It was used as a reference under Article 143(1) of the
Constitution which was on the implementation of the Indo-Pakistan Agreement
related to the Berubari Union and in exchanging the enclaves which were
decided for consideration by the bench consisting of eight judges.
 Through the Berubari case, the Court stated that ‘Preamble is the key to open
the mind of the makers’ but it can not be considered as part of the Constitution.
Therefore it is not enforceable in a court of law.
 Kesavananda Bharati Case: In this case, for the first time, a bench of 13 judges
was assembled to hear a writ petition. The Court held that:
 The Preamble of the Constitution will now be considered as part of the
Constitution.
 The Preamble is not the supreme power or source of any restriction or
prohibition but it plays an important role in the interpretation of statutes and
provisions of the Constitution.
 So, it can be concluded that preamble is part of the introductory part of the
Constitution.
 In the 1995 case of Union Government Vs LIC of India also, the Supreme
Court has once again held that Preamble is the integral part of the Constitution but is
not directly enforceable in a court of justice in India.

Unit I Introduction to Indian constitution

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Unit I Introduction to Indian constitution