Friday, 4 July 2014

Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers and duties of government institutions and set outs fundamental rights, directive principles and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in world, containing 44 articles in 25 parts, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 98 amendments (out of 120 Constitution Amendments Bills).

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is widely regarded as the father of the Indian Constitution. The constitution was adopted by the India Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, and came into effect on 26 January 1950. The date of 26 January was choosen to commemorate the Purna Swaraj ddeclaration of independence of 1930.

The constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of of justice, equality and liberty and endeavors to promote fraternity among them. The words "Socialist" and "Secular" were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment. India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on 26 January each year as Republic Day. At the time of commencement, the constitution had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules. It consists of almost 80,000 words and took 2 years 11 months and 18 days to build.

The constitutional head of the Executive of the Union is the President. As per the Article 79 of the Constitution of India, the council of the Parliament consist of the President and two Houses known as the Council of States i.e. Rajyasabha and the House of the People i.e. Loksabha. Article 74(1) of the constitution provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head to aid and advise the President, who shall exercise his/her functions in accordance to the advise. The real executive power is thus vested in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head.

Adoptions from other constitutions: The architects of Indian constitution were most heavily influenced by the British model of parliamentary democracy. In addition, a number of principles were adopted from the Constitution of the United State of America, including the separation of powers among the major branches of government and the establishment of a supreme court. The principles adopted from Canada were federal government with strong center and also distribution of powers between center government and state governments along with placing residuary powers with central government. From Ireland, directive principle of state policy was adopted. From Germany, the principle of suspension of fundamental rights during emergency was adopted. From Australia, the idea of having a Concurrent list of shared powers was used as well and some the following was utilized for the preamble.

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