INDIAN POLITY

 INDIAN POLITY

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written national constitution in the world.
It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26 November 1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950. The constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the country's fundamental governing document, and the Dominion of India became the Republic of India. To ensure constitutional autochthony, its framers repealed prior acts of the British parliament in Article 395.India celebrates its constitution on 26 January as Republic Day.

• 6 December 1946: Formation of the Constitution Assembly (in accordance with French practice).

• 9 December 1946: The first meeting was held in the constitution hall (now the Central Hall of Parliament House). The 1st person to address was J. B. Kripalani, Sachchidananda Sinha became temporary president. (Demanding a separate state, the Muslim League boycotted the meeting.)

• 11 December 1946: The Assembly appointed Rajendra Prasad as its president,H. C. Mukherjee as its vice-chairman and B. N. Rau as constitutional legal adviser. (There were initially 389 members in total, which declined to 299 after partition. Out of the 389 members, 292 were from government provinces, four from chief commissioner provinces and 93 from princely states.)

• 13 December 1946: An "Objective Resolution" was presented by Jawaharlal Nehru,laying down the underlying principles of the constitution. This later became the Preamble of the Constitution.

• 22 January 1947: Objective resolution unanimously adopted.

• 22 July 1947: National flag adopted.

• 15 August 1947: Achieved independence. India split into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.

• 29 August 1947: Drafting Committee appointed with B. R. Ambedkar as its Chairman. 

• 16 July 1948: Along with Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, V. T. Krishnamachari was also elected as second vice-president of Constituent Assembly.

• 26 November 1949: The Constitution of India was passed and adopted by the assembly.

• 24 January 1950: Last meeting of Constituent Assembly. The Constitution was signed and accepted (with 395 Articles, 8 Schedules, and 22 Parts).

• 26 January 1950: The Constitution came into force. (The process took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days—at a total expenditure of ₹6.4 million to finish.)

The Indian Constitution is divided into 25 parts and 12 schedules. It had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules at the time of its commencement. It has 470 articles in 25 parts and 12 schedules with five appendices

PART-I UNION AND ITS TERRITORY

Articles 1 to 4 under Part-I of the Constitution deal with the Union and its territory.

Article 1 describes India, that is, Bharat as a ‘Union of States’ rather than a ‘Federation of States’. This provision deals with two things: one, name of the country; and two, type of polity.

According to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the phrase ‘Union of States’ has been preferred to ‘Federation of States’ for two reasons: one, the Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement among the states like the American Federation; and two, the states have no right to secede from the federation. The federation is a Union because it is indestructible. The country is an integral whole and divided into different states only for the convenience of administration.

According to Article 1, the territory of India can be classified into three categories: 1. Territories of the states 2. Union territories 3. Territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any time.

Territory of India’ is a wider expression than the ‘Union of India’ because the latter includes only states while the former includes not only the states, but also union territories and territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any future time.

Article 2 empowers the Parliament to ‘admit into the Union of India, or establish, new states on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit’. Thus, Article 2 grants two powers to the Parliament: (a) the power to admit into the Union of India new states; and (b) the power to establish new states.

Article 3, on the other hand, relates to the formation of or changes in the existing states of the Union of India. In other words, Article 3 deals with the internal re-adjustment inter se of the territories of the constituent states of the Union of India. Article 3 authorises the Parliament to: (a) form a new state by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting any territory to a part of any state; (b) increase the area of any state; (c) diminish the area of any state; (d) alter the boundaries of any state; and (e) alter the name of any state.

Article 4 itself declares that laws made for admission or establishment of new states (under Article 2) and formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states (under Articles 3) are not to be considered as amendments of the Constitution under Article 368. This means that such laws can be passed by a simple majority and by the ordinary legislative process.