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Parliamentary System of India : Two Houses Of Parliament In India – Composition And Functions According to Article 79 of the Indian constitution, the Indian Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses. The two Houses are known respectively as the council of States and the House of the People.The House of the People (Lower House or Lok Sabha) The Lower House, the House of People or the Lok Sabha consists of 545 elected members and two members nominated to represent the Anglo-Indian community.Of the 545 elected members, 526 come from the states and 20 from the union territories. The members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the people on the basis of adult suffrage. Every Indian above the age of 18 is entitled to vote in the Lok Sabha election, if he is not otherwise disqualified. To be a member of the Lok Sabha, however, one must be a citizen of India of at least 25 years of age. The House elects a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker from among its members. The Speaker and in his absence, the Deputy Speaker presides over the sessions of the Lok Sabha.The Lok Sabha is elected for a period of 5 years. However the Lok Sabha may extend its own life by an act of the Parliament, not exceeding one year at a time, when a national emergency under Art. 352 are in operation. In any case, such extension cannot continue beyond six months after the emergency is lifted. Composition of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) The council of states, known in Hindi as the Rajya Sabha, is the Upper Chamber of the Indian Parliament. It is composed of not more than 250 members. Of the 250 members, 238 are indirectly elected the legislative assemblies of the states and union territories. 12 members are nominated by the President from among Indians of exceptional achievements in literature, science, arts etc. The members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the state legislative assemblies on the basis of proportional representation by means of single transferable votes.The Rajya Sabha reflects the federal principle in the Union Parliament. But the equality of representation of the states as in the composition of the U. S. Senate has not been accepted in India. Consequently, the more populous states like the Uttar Pradesh have a larger representation in the Rajya Sabha than the less populous ones like Arunachal or, Nagaland. Functions of the Parliament India has adopted the Parliamentary system of Government. In such a system, the legislature and the executive function as mutually are reinforcing interdependent organs of government. They are not independent and rival organs as in a Presidential system. Each depends on and sustains the other.The Primary function of the Parliament is law making Articles 107-108 vests law making powers in the Parliament. All laws of the union shall have to be passed by both the Houses of the Parliament. Even Presidential ordinances to continue, needs parliamentary assent. As the Government is undertaking more and more welfare activities, the volume of legislative work of the Parliament is also steadily increasing.The most important function of the Parliament however is providing a government. The government is run by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers responsible to the Parliament. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party in the popular chamber i.e. in the House of People.Responsibility of the Cabinet to the Parliament implies that the Cabinet must enjoy the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha. The majority party in the House of People gives the Government the support necessary to keep in power.The critical function of the Parliament is to criticize the cabinet and the ministers for all acts of commission and omission. Parliamentary criticism and exposure keeps the government on the right track. This function is performed by the opposition rather than the treasury benches.Next Parliament acts as an organ of information to the nation. The debates in the Parliament and questions to the ministers elicit information about the policies and actions of the Government which would not otherwise be available. The debates in the Parliament are elaborately reported in the newspapers. These Parliamentary debates help the formation of public opinion.The Parliament also institutes enquiries into complaints of Governmental misdeeds as into the working of Governmental agencies. Parliamentary enquiries are of great importance in keeping the Government on the right path.Finally, the Parliament acts as a great check on the financial activities of the government. The Parliament not only checks governmental incomes and expenditures, it also keeps a close watch on the financial activities of the Government. Two committees of the Parliament the Estimates Committee and the Public Accounts Committee are of crucial importance in this respect.Whether the Parliament is a sovereign law making bodyThere is an interesting debate among constitutional experts whether the Parliament of India is a sovereign law making body like the British Parliament. Though India has a Parliamentary system of government, the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty has not been fully accepted in India. In a system of Parliamentary sovereignty, no law passed by the Parliament can be challenged in a court of law on grounds of unconstitutionality. As Mr. Justic Willis said, in Britain, no court can sit as a Court of appeal from the Parliament. A law passed by the Parliament can be nullified only by the Parliament itself. But where the Government is based on—the system of constitutional sovereignty like the U. S. A. laws passed by the legislature may be challenged on grounds of unconstitutionality. Courts exercise the power of judicial review to decide the constitutional validity of the laws.The Indian constitution combines both the principles of Parliamentary and constitutional sovereignty. The Indian constitution grants the Power of Judicial review in laws affecting fundamental rights and distribution of powers between the states (schedule 7th). In other matters Parliament is sovereign. Thus, the Indian Parliament is not a fully sovereign law making body.        

Federalism : Art. I of the Indian constitution calls “India that is Bharat” “a union of states.” The term federation is absent in this description. Yet experts agree that Indian constitution is a federal constitution, though as a federation India is different from either the U. S. or the Canadian federation.A federation is a political contrivance to reconcile national unity with state rights. A federation is essentially a composite polity consisting of a national or central government administering subjects of national interest and a number of governments of the component units of federation called the state or provincial governments. Such governments administer subjects of essentially local interest. There may be same subjects concurrently administered both sets of governments.A written and usually rigid constitution embodies the distribution of subjects between the two sets of authorities. The constitution is made rigid in order that neither the central nor the state governments may alter the constitutionally ordained distribution of powers acting alone.A federation also has a supreme judiciary to act as guardian of the constitution. This is necessary to make the national and state governments operate within their constitutionally allotted sphere and prevent either from overstepping its bounds.Finally, a federal constitution is appropriate only in a federal society. A government cannot be federal unless the society is federal. India, a mosaic of sub-culture groups like the Bengalees or Biharis is undoubtedly a federal society. Hence our constitutional system is logically federal.The Indian constitution satisfies all criteria of a federal constitution.There are two sets of governments—the union government and the governments of the states, there is a constitutional distribution of powers between the centre and the states, there is a written and somewhat rigid constitution and finally there is a supreme court acting as the guardian of the Constitution.Yet India does not fit into any classic type of federation.Federations come into existence through a centrifugal or centripetal process. When a pre-existing unitary state is loosened into autonomous units to form a federation, a centrifugal federation such as Canada comes into existence. A centripetal federation on the other hand is one when pre¬existing independent states unite together to form a federation. India combines centrifugality and centripetality. Centrifugality is noticeable in the reconstitution of British India into Indian states and centripetality is to found in the integration of Indian states into the federation.Again, in a federation, the units i.e. the states or the provinces are autonomous. Both the centre and the states derive their authority from the constitution. States are in no way subordinate to the centre. The U. S. federation has been described by Lincoln as the indestructible federation of indestructible states. On this point, Indian federation is very different from most other federations. One may say that India is an indestructible federation of very much destructible state. While the phrase union of states in Art. 1 ensures that there will always be some states in India, the existence and continuance of any particular state, says West Bengal, is not ensured. In fact since the reorganization of states since 1956, quite a number of existing states have been abolished and a large number of new states have been curved out of the territory of existing states.Again the distribution of powers between the centre and the states is heavily tilted in favor of the states. In the U. S. A. only enumerated powers have been given to the federal government and in Canada the enumerated powers are entrusted to the provinces. Since the enumerated powers are few and residues are many, the states in the U. S. A. and the centre in Canada are very strong.In India, powers have divided with the help of three lists: central, state and concurrent. The central list not only contains 97 items, it also contains most important and crucial powers. The state list contains 66 items and the concurrent list contains 47 items. On subjects in the concurrent list, both the central and the state legislatures may legislate. In case of conflict, central legislation prevails.Even on state subjects, the central legislature may pass laws when as per Art. 249. Two-thirds of the Rajya Sabha supports a resolution to in accordance with that effect.Again emergency provisions of the Indian constitution operate to the detriment of state-autonomy. In cases of national emergency under Art 352 and break down of constitutional machinery under Art. 356, the state autonomy is reduced to nullity. Prof. D. N. Banerji rightly observes that India is federal state in normal times but a unitary state in times of emergency.Again though Indian constitution is rigid, the degree of rigidity is much smaller than in a normal federation, Art. 368 of the constitution prescribe the procedure of amendment. Major portion of the constitution may be amended by the central legislature in the ordinary process of law-making. Participation of the states is not required at all. In the U. S. A. amendments require ratification by three-fourths of the states.In India, the state governors are mere agents of the centre. They are appointed by the President. The healthy convention that the state Chief Minister is consulted before appointing a governor, is not always observed.Again higher positions in the state services are manned by central services officers of the I. A. S and I. P. S cadre. Such officers also act as levers of central control over state administration.Moreover, though our union legislature is bicameral, India’s upper chamber i.e. Rajya Sabha is not constituted on the principle of equality of representation of the federation units. Consequently some states e. g. U. P., have overwhelming representation in both chambers of the union Parliament. Such a scheme makes states like U. P., India’s heartland while states with smaller representation are reduced to the status of rim-land.Finally, India has one unified citizenship as contrasted with the double citizenship in the U. S. A., one integrated judicial system, topped by the Supreme Court of India, one election commission for the whole country and one single constitution, serving as the constitution of the union and the states.

Directive Pinciples Of State Policy: Directive Pinciples Of State Policy: The Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Part IV, Articles 36-51 of the Indian constitution constitute the most interesting and enchanting part of the constitution.The Directive Principles may be said to contain the philosophy of the constitution. The idea of directives being included in the constitution was borrowed from the constitution of Ireland. As the very term “Directives” indicate, the Directive principles are broad directives given to the state in accordance with which the legislative and executive powers of the state are to be exercised.As Nehru observed, the governments will ignore the directives “Only at their own peril.” As India seeks to secure an egalitarian society, the founding fathers were not satisfied with only political justice. They sought to combine political justice with economic and social justice.The Directive Principles may be classified into 3 broad categories—1. Socialistic2. Gandhian and3. Liberal-intellectual.(1) Socialistic DirectivesPrincipal among this category of directives are (a) securing welfare of the people (Art. 38) (b) securing proper distribution of material resources of the community as to best sub serve the common-good, equal pay for equal work, protection of childhood and youth against exploitation. etc. (Art.39), (c) curing right to work, education etc. Art. (41), (d) securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief (Art. 42) etc.(2) Gandhian DirectivesSuch directives are spread over several Arts. Principal among such directives are (a) to organize village panchayats (Art. 40), (b) to secure living wage, decent standard of life, and to promote cottage industries (Art.43), (c) to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to 14 years of age (Art. 45), (d) to promote economic and educational interests of the weaker sections of the people, particularly, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, (e) to enforce prohibition of intoxicating drinks and cow-slaughter and to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on scientific lines (Arts. 46-48).(3) Liberal intellectual directivesPrincipal among such directives are (a) to secure uniform civil code throughout the country (Art.44), (b) to separate the judiciary from the executive (Art.50), (c) to protect monuments of historic and national importance and (d) to promote international peace and security.On the whole, Part IV contains a formidable list of directives given to the executive and the legislatures to follow in issuing orders or making laws. These directives make India a “plastic state.” The directives may be used by any party with any ideology. In fact, the Directive Principles are codified versions of democratic socialist order as conceived by Nehru with an admixture of Gandhian thought.Part IV of the constitution does not form an operative part of the constitution. The directives are non-justiciable in character. The courts cannot compel the governments to enforce the directives.But if there is no judicial sanction behind the directives, there are certainly political sanctions. Art. 37 make the directives, “fundamental in the governance of the country and in… making laws.” Hence the government cannot totally ignore them, for fear of adverse popular reaction. The opposition inevitably takes the government to task whenever the directives are blatantly ignored, thus scoring a political point.The non-justiciability of part IV has exposed the directives to trenchant criticism. Jennings calls them “pious aspirations,” and “Fabian socialism without socialism.” Where characterizes them as “paragraphs of generalities.”Yet many scholars appreciate the value of the directives. Sir B. N. Rau regards them as “moral precepts” with an educative value. Ambedkar considered them as powerful instruments for the transformation of India from a political democracy into an economic democracy. The directive principles according to Granville Austin, are “positive obligations”… to find a piddle way between individual liberty and Public good. “The directives constitute a sort of “instrument of instruction” to all governments in the great task of transforming a laissez-fire society into a welfare state, a socialistic pattern of society and eventually into a socialist society.              

Fundamental Duties : Originally, the constitution of India did not contain any list of fundamental duties. In other words, enjoyment of fundamental rights was not conditional on the performance of fundamental duties.Democratic rights are based on the theory that rights are not created by the state. Individuals are born with right. It is on this theory that the Indians before independence raised the slogan that “freedom is our birth right.” It is in this sense again that Prof. Laski asserts that the “state does not create rights, it only recognizes rights.”The socialists on the other hand, make enjoyment or rights conditional on the fulfillment of duties. They claim that “he who does not work, neither shall he eat.” The constitution of the world’s first socialist country, that of Soviet Union contains a list of fundamental rights immediately followed by a list of fundamental duties. It is clearly asserted that the enjoyment of fundamental rights is conditional on the satisfactory performance of fundamental duties.It was on this Soviet model that fundamental duties were added to the Indian Constitution by 42nd amendment of the constitution in 1976. The fundamental duties are contained in Art. 51A.Art. 51A, Part IVA of the Indian Constitution, specifies the list of fundamental duties of the citizens. It says “it shall be the duty of every citizen of India:1. to abide by the constitution and respect its ideal and institutions;2. to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;3. to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;4. to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;5. to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional diversities, to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;6. to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;7. to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wild-life and to have compassion for living creatures;8. to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;9. to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;10. to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity, so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavor and achievement. Further, one more Fundamental duty has been added to the Indian Constitution by 86th Amendment of the constitution in 2002.11. who is a parent or guardian , to provide opportunities for education to his child, or as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.The fundamental duties however are non-justiciable in character. This means that no citizen can be punished by a court for violation of a fundamental duty. In this respect the fundamental duties are like the directive principles of the constitution in part IV. The directive principles lay down some high ideals to be followed by the state. Similarly, the fundamental duties in Art 51A, lay down some high ideals to be followed by the citizens. In both cases, violation does not invite any punishment. It is significant that the fundamental duties are placed at the end of part IV rather than at the end of part III of the constitution. While part III containing fundamental rights is justiciable, part IV containing the directive principles is not.However, these fundamental duties are not mere expressions of pious platitudes. Courts will certainly take cognizance of laws seeking to give effect to fundamental duties.Further, the fundamental duties enumerated in Art. 51A constitute a constant reminder to the citizens that they have duties in building up a free, egalitarian and healthy society. These are expected to act as damper to reckless and anti-social activities on the part of some individuals.Finally, the very fact that these duties figure in the constitution, keeps the door open for the duties to be given higher constitutional at status in future through constitutional amendments.Importance Of Fundamental Duties :The Fundamental Duties are an important part of Indian Constitution. The duties prescribed, embody some of the highest ideals preached by our great saints, philosophers, social reformers and political leaders.No Duties of the Citizen were incorporated in the original constitution of India at the time of its commencement in 1950. These duties were inserted subsequently by amending the constitution in 1976 (42nd Amendment Act.) to regulate the behaviour of the citizens and to bring about excellence in all the spheres of the citizens.Just as the directive Principle of State Policy lay down guidelines for the various governments, similarly the fundamental duties are calculated to draw the attention of the citizens towards the duties they owe to the nation and to one another.But the Indian constitution does not provide for the enforcement of the duties. There is no provision in the constitution for direct enforcement of any of the above duties. Neither has there a provision in the constitution for any sanction to prevent the violation of duties, nor any to enforce fundamental duties by issuing writs. However, since these Fundamental Duties are mentioned in the constitution, there is scope for further constitutional amendments.However, these duties can be used for interpreting ambiguous statutes as decided in the Headmaster vs. Union of India, 1983.In the way of conclusion it must be said that in a vast country like India, made of the people of different races, castes, religious, languages, communities, etc. the need for maintaining national unity and integrity is of primary importance. It in this context that the Fundamental Duties of the citizens and, particularly, the duty to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of our country [Article 51A (c)] assumes paramount importance. It reminds the citizens that the rights cannot exist without duties.

Differences between Fundamental Rights & Directive principles Of State Policy : Parts III and IV, that is, chapters on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles, together constitute the “conscience” of the Indian constitution. But, the differences between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State policy are significant. The differences are discussed below 😮 Firstly, the fundamental rights constitute a set of negative injunctions. The state is restrained from doing something’s. The directives on the other hand are a set of positive directions. The state is urged to do something to transform India into a social and economic democracy. As Gladhill observes, Fundamental Rights are injunctions to prohibit the government from doing certain things, the Directive principles are affirmative instructions to the government to do certain things.o Secondly, the Directives are non-justiciable. Courts do not enforce them. A directive may be made enforceable by the courts only when there is a lam on it. Fundamental rights, on the other hand are justiciable. They impose legal obligations on the state as well as on individuals. Courts enforce them. If a law violates a fundamental right, the law in question will be declared void. But no law will be declared unconstitutional on the ground that it violates a directive principle against violation of a fundamental right, constitutional remedy under Art. 32 are available which not the case is when a directive is violated either by the state or, by individual. For this reason Prof K. T. Shah deprecates the Directive Principles as “Pious wishes” or a mere window dressing for the social revolution of the country.Whenever conflicts arise between fundamental rights and directive principles, fundamental rights prevail over the directive principles because, in terms of Arts. 32 and 226, fundamental rights are enforceable by the courts. If a law is in conflict with a fundamental right, it is declared void by the Supreme Court. But no law can be declared void on the ground that it is violative of a directive principle. In 1951, in Champakam Dorairajan vs. the state of Madras, the Supreme Court held “The chapter on Fundamental Rights is sacrosanct and not liable to be abridged by any legislative or executive act. The Directive Principles of State Policy have to conform and are subsidiary to the chapter on Fundamental Rights.”25th constitution amendment Act in 1971 by Article 31(c) provided that laws enacted to implement directives in Article 39 (b) and (c) shall not be declared void on ground of contravention of fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 14 and 19. In 1976, during emergency, the 42nd amendment, sought to widen the scope of Article 31 (c), to place all laws passed for the implementation of any or all directive principles beyond judicial review. But the Supreme Court struck down this attempt at total exclusion of all laws to implement directives from judicial review on the ground that this will offend the ‘basic structure’ of the constitution. Thus Article, 31(c) is restored to pre-1976 position. The position today is that, in general, the fundamental rights enjoy priority over the directives. But the laws passed to implement Article 39 (b) and (c) cannot be declared void on ground of violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 14 and 19.

Fundamental Rights : The Constitution of India guarantees certain Fundamental Rights to the Citizens of India.The Indian constitution contains a chapter on fundamental rights. Part III (Art. 12-35) contains fundamental rights of Indian citizens. The fundamental rights are called fundamental because they are basic to the development of human personality.The Indian fundamental rights, contrasted with such rights contained in the U. S. bill of rights, present several peculiarities. First, the fundamental rights in India are far more elaborate than in the U. S. A. Thus, for example, the U. S. bill of rights (first ten amendments) only names some rights. The Supreme Court, through the process of judicial review decides the limitations on these rights. In India, determination of limitations on fundamental rights is not left to judicial interpretation. The constitution itself contains (clauses 2-6 in Art. 19) such limitations. The limitations contemplated by the constitution are-a. public order,b. security of the state andc. sovereignty and integrity of India.In the face of these limitations, the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution cannot be said to be absolute.However, whenever the state restricts fundamental rights by legislation, the courts have the right to examine whether the limitations imposed are “reasonable or not.” The courts are free to strike down any law imposing unreasonable restriction on the enjoyment of fundamental rights. The courts in India enjoy a limited degree of judicial review with respect to fundamental rights.Yet, in view of these limitations, some critics argue that the Indian constitution gives fundamental rights with one hand and takes them away with the other. It should also be pointed out that provision of preventive detention under Art. 22 is a gross violation of the individual liberty under Art. 21. The power of the state to detain persons without trial is not to be found in any other democratic country like the U. S. A. Further, in case of proclamation of emergency under Art. 352, fundamental rights guaranteed under Art. 19 remain suspended by virtue of Arts 358 and 359.Again, the Indian constitution is based on the theory of Parliamentary sovereignty and not constitutional sovereignty, as is the case in the U. S. A. Consequently, the Parliament may easily tamper with Indian fundamental rights. The capacity of the judiciary to afford protection to the fundamental rights is very limited. The Supreme Court verdict that the fundamental rights are not amendable was subsequently reversed. In the Keshavanand Bharati case, Supreme Court held that the Parliament may amend the entire constitution. It cannot only alter any basic feature of the constitution.The processes of amendment given in Art 368 are far easier than the one given in Art 5 of the U.S. constitution. Consequently, the Union Parliament with a qualified majority may now easily amend any fundamental right contained in Part III of the constitution.Kinds of fundamental rightsThe Indian constitution originally provided 7 categories of fundamental rights. But one fundamental right, that to property was removed from the list of fundamental rights by 44th amendment. Right to property now is an ordinary legal right. Thus there are now 6 categories of fundamental rights. These are:(1) Right to equality (Arts. 14-18).In this category there are five rightsi. equality before law,ii. abolition of discrimination on grounds of caste, race, sex or religion,iii. equality in public employment,iv. abolition of untouchability, andv. abolition of titles.(2) Rights to freedom.(Arts. 19-22) these now include six freedoms-o freedoms of speech and expression,o freedom of assembly without arms of association,o freedom of movement,o freedom of residence ando freedom of profession oroccupation.These freedoms are however not without limitations.(3) Rights against exploitation (Arts. 24 and 25)Include prohibition of traffic in human beings and prohibition of child labour.(4) Rights to freedom of religion (Arts. 25-28)Include freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. Citizens are free to profess and practice any religion. These provisions make India a secular state.(5) Cultural and Educational rights (Arts. 29-30)Include right to protection of language, script and culture given to the minorities. The minorities are also given the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their own.(6) Right to constitutional remedies (Arts. 32-35)Provides for enforcement of fundamental rights through the judicial process.Thus the constitution contains an elaborate scheme of fundamental rights. But the fundamental rights in India are not absolute. They are hedged by many limitations. Indeed, fundamental rights cannot be absolute anywhere in the world. Countries differ only in their degree of limitations on fundamental rights.

Main Features Of Indian Constitution: The constitution of India has many distinctive features of its own. The main features of Indian Constitution are discussed in this article.One of repeated criticism of the Indian constitution is that it is very little original and mostly borrowed from other constitutions. Even Dr. Ambedkar admitted in the Constituent Assembly that many elements were borrowed from foreign constitutions but they were not “slavish imitations” but adoption of time-tested constitutional principles like the “Rule of Law” or “Equality before Law” to serve the interests of the people.The first feature of Indian constitution is the most voluminous constitution ever created by men. In its original shape the constitution had 395 articles and several schedules, 60 odd amendments since 1950 only add to the bulk of the constitution. When contrasted with the six effective articles and 26 amendments of the U. S. constitution, one appreciates how bulky our constitution is.Again drafting of the constitution has not been very happy. The Constituent Assembly was pre-dominated by lawyers. The constitution is drafted in legalistic terms making it a ‘lawyer’s paradise’. This stands in sharp contrast with the U. S. constitution which is acclaimed as specimen of lucid constitutional drafting. However, the fact that our constitution has endured for forty years and during periods of acute crisis, shows its inherent strength and resilience. When constitutions of neighboring countries like Pakistan, Burma or Bangladesh were crumbling like houses of cards, our constitution stood steady like a rock.The great bulk of the Indian constitution is due to several factors.o Our founding fathers borrowed great constitutional principles from the foreign constitutions while avoiding their loopholes to ensure healthy political life to the citizens. Thus the fundamental rights were borrowed from the U. S. constitution. Parliamentary system of government from British, the Directive principles from the Irish constitution and the idea of emergency from the German Constitution and the Government of India Act of 1935.o Unlike other constitutions, the Indian constitution provides not only the basic law. It also provides very detailed and minute administrative provisions. This was to prevent subversion of the constitution through legislative process.o The vastness of the country and its population size and diversity, compelled the framers of the constitution to make provisions for the protection and promotion of the interests of different regions and groups in the country. Thus the constitution contains elaborate provisions for the minorities, scheduled castes and tribes etc.o Finally, the Indian constitution is an omnibus constitution. It is at the same time a constitution for the whole nation as well as for the component states of the Union.Second main feature of the Indian constitution is that it is a federal constitution. The term federal has not been used in the constitution. Instead India has been described as a “Union of States.” However all the characteristics of a federation viz. two sets of government—national government and a number of governments of the component units, division of powers between the national government and the governments of the units and a federal judiciary to act as the guardian of the constitution and to settle disputes between the centre and the units—are all present in the Indian constitution. However, the nature of the Indian federation is different from the nature of older federations like the U.S.A.Third feature of the Indian constitution it that it provides for parliamentary form of government both at the centre and in the states. This is borrowed from the Westminster model. The adoption of this model is partly due to India’s long familiarity with it during the British rule. However in the face of existence of multiplicity of parties in India, some political scientists question the wisdom of this step.Fourth feature of Indian Constitution is that though India has a written constitution which is a federal necessity, India’s constitution is far less rigid than a normal federal constitution. Truly, it is more flexible than rigid. Because of this flexibility, it has been possible to amend the constitution 60 times in less than forty years. By contrast the U. S. constitution could be amended only 26 times in 200 years.Fifth important feature of Indian Constitution is that the constitution like any modern written constitution has a preamble before it. The preamble is very lucid exposition of the philosophy of the constitution. The original preamble declared India to be a Sovereign Democratic Republic. The 42nd amendment makes India–a Sovereign, Secular Socialist Democratic Republic.Justice, liberty, equality and fraternity–are set as the ideas to be achieved by India as a nation. The preamble to the Indian constitution is praised by all critics for its lucid exposition of lofty political ideals.Sixth important featue of Indian Constitution is that the constitution guarantees fundamental rights of the citizens. Rights to equality, freedom, religion and constitutional remedies are the enumerated fundamental rights of Indian citizens. Originally right to property was also a fundamental right. Subsequently right to property was removed from the list of fundamental rights. Hence right to property is now a legal rather than constitutional right. The status property has been altered to give substance to India’s socialist aspirations.Seventhly, taking cue from the Irish constitution, our constitution also provides a number of Directive Principles. Such principles do not constitute any constitutional obligation for the government to fulfill; rather they are guide-lines to the government.Upholding secularism is another lofty aspect of our constitution. India does not have any state religion. In a country inhabited by people of all faiths, it is essential that the state remains neutral between religions. Acceptance of secularism as a political ideal was an act of wisdom and boldness particularly after the traumatic experience of India’s partition on religious lines.Finally, Indian constitution does not sanction double citizenship as in federations like the U.S.A. Where is only one uniform Indian citizenship.Our constitution was carefully tailored to suit the needs of the Indian, people. It is a tribute to the founding fathers that their work has endured in spite of strains and stresses.