Test: Constitution Of India - 1

• India is a federal state with a parliamentary form of government. It is governed under the 1949 constitution (effective since Jan., 1950).
• The president of India, who is head of state, is elected for a five-year term by the elected members of the federal and state parliaments; there are no term limits.

Preamble states:

• “We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic addicted to secure to all its citizens.
• Justice, social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, Equality of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all. Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.

In 1976, the Preamble was amended (only once till date) by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act. Three new terms, Socialist, Secular, and Integrity were added to the Preamble. The Supreme Court held this amendment validly.

Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha was the first chairman (temporary) of Constituent Assembly. Later Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the president and Its vice-president was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, a Christian from Bengal and former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University.

The Drafting Committee had seven members:

1. Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
2. N. Gopalaswami
3. B.R. Ambedkar
4. K.M Munshi
5. Mohammad Saadulla
6. B.L. Mitter
7. D.P. Khaitan

At its first meeting on 30th August 1947, the Drafting Committee elected B.R Ambedkar as its Chairman.

The Indian Constitution closely follows the constitutional system of the United Kingdom.

This can be seen by the fact that the Indian Constitution has borrowed the following features from the British Constitution:

• The office of the president of India is based upon the British Queen who is a ceremonial head of the state.
• The Cabinet system of government in India is based upon the Cabinet system as prevailing in the U.K.
• Our Prime Minister is also a replica of the British Prime Minister.
• The parliament type of government has also been adopted from the British system.
• Just like the U.K our Parliament is also bicameral, i.e it has two Houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
• The Lok Sabha, the Lower house of parliament in India, is also more powerful than the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.
• Like in the U.K, the presiding officer of Lok Sabha is also known as the speaker. Some of his powers are identical to those of the speaker in England.
• The privileges of the Members of Parliament in India are also similar to those enjoyed by their counterparts in the U.K.

• The drafting committee headed by Dr. B R Ambedkar prepared the first draft of the Constitution after taking into account the proposals of various committees.
• It was first published on 21 February 1948.
• The draft Constitution was considered for 114 days.
• Finally, on 26 November 1949, the Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly.

• The Right to Vote is neither Fundamental Right nor Constitutional Right but a mere Statutory Right or Legal Right. The right originates from the Constitution and in accordance with the constitutional mandate contained in Article 326, the right has been shaped by the statute, namely, RPA, 1951.
• A fundamental right, on the other hand, is guaranteed by the Constitution and allows a citizen to move Supreme Court for its enforcement.

• There are some directive principles are given in the constitution as in Part-IV and Part-V and Articale-50 of our constitution is separating the judiciary from executive as, “the state shall take steps to separate judiciary from the executive in the public services of the state.
• The final interpreter, protector & guardian of the Indian Constitution is the Supreme Court. It is the highest judicial forum and ultimate or final court of appeal under the Constitution of India.
• The Constitution of India provides justice for all.The duty of judges is considered to be very pious, therefore the constitution has provided for independence of judiciary so that they can remain impartial to serve the constitutional goals, act fairly, reasonably, free of any fear or favor.

You can learn this topic through this video:
The Indian Judiciary

 In the Berubari Union16 case (1960), the Supreme Court said that the Preamble shows the general purposes behind the several provisions in the Constitution, and is thus a key to the minds of the makers of the Constitution. Further, where the terms used in any article are ambiguous or capable of more than one meaning, some assistance at interpretation may be taken from the objectives enshrined in the Preamble. Despite this recognition of the significance of the Preamble, the Supreme Court specifically opined that Preamble is not a part of the Constitution.   

As a part of the Constitution, preamble can be amended under Article 368 of the Constitution, but the basic structure of the preamble can not be amended. As of now, the preamble is only amended once through the 42^nd Amendment Act, 1976

The first article of the Constitution of India states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states," implicitly codifying India and Bharat as equally official short names for the Republic of India.

Because B.R. Ambedkar was highly educated in law all over the world he had approx 26 degree of eminent University and had read all the Constitution of that time . He was presumed to be a best law scholar of that time and was also a head of draft committee for Indian constitution. so he was made the father of constitution.

The constitutional power to create new states and union territories in India is solely reserved to the Parliament of India.

Parliament can do so by announcing new states/union territories, separating territory from an existing state or merging two or more states/union territories or parts of them.

The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India.

The Parliament is composed of the President of India, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), and the Lok Sabha (House of the People).

Audi alteram partem (or audiatur et altera pars) is a Latin phrase meaning "listen to the other side", or "let the other side be heard as well".
It is the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them.
So option A infers the same thing.

An amicus curiae is someone who is not a party to a case and may or may not have been solicited by a party and who assists a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case and is typically presented in the form of a brief.

• The term adverse possession means the unlawful possession of the property despite not being the owner of that property.
• If a possessor of a property has continuous possession of that property for continuous 12 years, with the knowledge of owner but without the permission of the owner, then that property is said to be adversely possessed by the possessor.
• The concept of adverse possession was defined by Honorable supreme Court Amarendra Pratap Singh Vs. Tej Bahadur Prajapati. 

Indian constitution has borrowed provisions from Constitutions of other countries and incorporates them after modifying. Indian constitution declares India a federal state that is two governments but it provides for a single citizenship for India and States both. This provision is borrowed from the Constitution of Britain.

• Article 17 of the constitution abolishes the practice of untouchability.
• The practice of untouchability is an offence and anyone doing so is punishable by law.

• Untouchability is neither defined in the Constitution nor in the Act. It refers to a social practice which looks down upon certain depressed classes solely on account of their birth and makes any discrimination against them on this ground.

• Their physical touch was considered to pollute others. Such castes which were called untouchables were not to draw water from the same wells, or use the pond/tank which is being used by the higher castes.

• They were not allowed to enter some temples and suffered many other disabilities.

  Inclusion of this provision in the Constitution shows the importance attached by the Constituent Assembly towards eradication of this evil practice. Article 17 is also a significant provision from the point of view of equality before law (Article 14).

• It guarantees social justice and dignity of man, the twin privileges which were denied to a vast section of the Indian society for centuries together.

   

Equally before law is a negative as it follows the concept of 'REXLEX' meaning 'king is law' which is clearly visualising AUTOCRACY. And hence option 'C'.

Every person shall have equal admittance to public places like public wells, bathing ghats, museums, temples etc. However, the State has the right to make any special arrangement for women and children or for the development of any socially or educationally backward class or scheduled castes or scheduled tribes.

Article 15: A fundamental right prohibits discrimination by the state against any citizen on grounds 'only' of religion, caste, race, sex, and place of birth. The use of the world only means that discrimination on other grounds is not prohibited.

Preamble is an introductory statement that states the source of authority, date of adoption, guiding principles, etc. Also, it specifies character and values like sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic, justice, liberty, equality, fraternity. It doesn't include anything about adult franchise.

Judicial review, power of the courts of a Country more to examine the actions of the legislative, executive and administrative arms of the government. Actions judged inconsistent are declared unconstitutional and therefore, null and void.

There are 5 ways to acquire Indian citizenship:

• by Birth
• by Descent
• by Registration
• by Naturalization
• by Incorporation of territories

As traders have right to profession so court can quash the law but according to the principle only parliament and state legislature can make the laws so court cannot direct Parliament to make any law. Answer would be C because the court has no authority to direct the parliament new laws but the exist law can be quashed.

A person of Indian origin who is ordinarily resident in India for seven years before making an application under Section 5(1)(a).

Termination of citizenship
The Citizenship Act, 1955 also lays down three modes by which an Indian citizen may lose his/her citizenship:
(i) Renunciation is a voluntary act by which a person, after acquiring the citizenship of another country, gives up his Indian citizenship. This provision is subject to certain conditions.
(ii) Termination takes place by operation of law when an Indian citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country. He automatically ceases to be an Indian citizen.
(iii) Deprivation is a compulsory termination of the citizenship of India obtained by Registration or Naturalisation, by the Government of India, on charges of using fraudulent means to acquire citizenship.

Fundamental Rights are not enforceable against private institution. State has given us the fundamental right so a fundamental rights can only be claimed against the State.

The doctrine of waiver: It is not open to a citizen to waive his fundamental rights conferred by Part 3 of the constitution. The Supreme Court is the bulwark of the fundamental rights that have been for the first time enacted in the constitution and it would be a sacrilege to whittle down these rights.

Federalism is a type of government in which the power is divided between the national government and other governmental units. It contrasts with a unitary government, in which a central authority holds the power, and a confederation, in which states, for example, are clearly dominant.

The minimum no. of members of the House of parliament required to be present for a proceeding to start is called Quorum. It is 1/10th of the total membership of the House. The Presiding Officer has power to prorogue a sitting in case of absence of quorum or suspend the sitting until there is quorum

The final authority to interpret our Constitution is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of constitutional review.

"that the power of judicial review over legislative action vested in the High Courts under Article 226 and in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution is an integral and essential feature of the Constitution, constituting part of its basic structure".