Salient Features of the Indian Constitution

Lengthiest Written Constitution

• The Constitution of India is the lengthiest of all the written Constitutions of the world. It is a very comprehensive, elaborate and detailed document.
• Originally (1949), the Constitution contained a Preamble, 395 Articles (divided into 22 Parts) and 8 Schedules. Presently (2019), it consists of a Preamble, about 470 Articles (divided into 25 Parts) and 12 Schedules.
• Factors responsible for the lengthiest nature of our Constitution are:
  • Geographical factors, that is, the vastness of the country and its diversity.
  • Historical factors, e.g., the influence of the Government of India Act of 1935, which was bulky.
  • Single Constitution for both the Centre and the states
  • Dominance of legal luminaries in the Constituent Assembly.

Drawn From Various Sources

• The Constitution of India has borrowed most of its provisions from the Constitutions of various other countries as well as from the Government of India Act5 of 1935.

• Sources of the constitution include:

Government	Influence
United Kingdom	Parliamentary government Nominal head of the state Post of Prime Minister More powerful lower house Concept of single citizenship Legislative procedure Bicameral legislature Rule of law Cabinet system The legislative speaker and their role Prerogative writ Parliamentary privilege
United States	Fundamental rights Written constitution Preamble to the Constitution Federal structure of government Impeachment of the President. Post of the Vice President and his functions. The institution of Supreme Court. Removal of Supreme Court and High courts judges. Electoral College Independent judiciary and separation of powers Judicial review President as commander-in-chief of the armed forces Equal protection under law.
Ireland	Directive principles of state policy Nomination of members to the Rajya Sabha by the President. Method of election of the President.
Australia	Freedom of trade between states. National legislative power to implement treaties, even on matters outside normal federal jurisdiction. Concurrent List Provision of Joint Session of the Parliament.
France	Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in the preamble. The ideals of Republic in the preamble.
Canada	Quasi-federal government—a federal system with a strong central government Distribution of powers between the central and state governments. Residual powers, retained by the central government. Appointment of Governor of states by Centre. Advisory Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
Soviet Union	Fundamental Duties under article 51-A. Mandated planning commission to oversee economic development. Ideals of justice (social, economic and political) in the Preamble.
Weimar Republic	Suspension of Fundamental rights during emergency.
South Africa	Amendment procedure of the constitution. Election of the member of Rajya Sabha.
Japan	Procedure established by Law Laws on which Supreme Court functions.

Blend of Rigidity and Flexibility

• The Indian Constitution is neither rigid nor flexible.
• A rigid Constitution is one that requires a special procedure for its amendment, as for example, the American Constitution. A flexible constitution, on the other hand, is one that can be amended in the same manner as the ordinary laws are made, as for example, the British Constitution.
• Indian Constitution has gone through more than 100 amendments so far. Thus the Indian Constitution is a unique blend of rigidity and flexibility.

Federal System with Unitary Bias

• The Constitution of India establishes a federal system of Government. It contains all the usual features of a federation, viz., two Government, division of powers, written Constitution, supremacy of Constitution, rigidity of Constitution, independent judiciary and bicameralism.
• However, the Indian Constitution also contains a large number of unitary or non-federal features, viz., a strong Centre, single Constitution, single citizenship, flexibility of Constitution, integrated judiciary, appointment of state governor by the Centre, all-India services, emergency provisions and so on.
• Moreover, the term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the Constitution. Article 1, on the other hand, describes India as a ‘Union of States’ which implies two things: one, Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states; and two, no state has the right to secede from the federation.
• Hence, the Indian Constitution has been variously described as ‘federal in form but, unitary in spirit’, ‘quasi-federal’

Parliamentary Form of Government

• The Constitution provides for a Parliamentary form of government which is federal in structure with certain unitary features.
• The constitutional head of the Executive of the Union is the President. As per Article 79 of the Constitution of India, the council of the Parliament of the Union consists of the President and two Houses known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

The features of parliamentary government in India are:

• Presence of nominal and real executives;
• Majority party rule,
• Collective responsibility of the executive to the legislature,
• Membership of the ministers in the legislature,
• Leadership of the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister,
• Dissolution of the lower House (Lok Sabha or Assembly)

Synthesis of Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy

• The doctrine of sovereignty of Parliament is associated with the British Parliament, while the principle of judicial supremacy with that of the American Supreme Court.
• Just as the Indian parliamentary system differs from the British system, the scope of judicial review power of the Supreme Court in India is narrower than that of what exists in US. This is because the American Constitution provides for ‘due process of law’ against that of ‘procedure established by law’ contained in the Indian Constitution (Article 21).
• Therefore, the framers of the Indian Constitution have preferred a proper synthesis between the British principle of parliamentary sovereignty and the American principle of judicial supremacy. The
• Supreme Court, on the one hand, can declare the parliamentary laws as unconstitutional through its power of judicial review. The Parliament, on the other hand, can amend the major portion of the Constitution through its constituent power.

Integrated and Independent Judiciary

• The Indian Constitution establishes a judicial system that is integrated as well as independent.
• The Supreme Court stands at the top of the integrated judicial system in the country. Below it, there are high courts at the state level.
• Under a high court, there is a hierarchy of subordinate courts, that is, district courts and other lower courts.
• This single system of courts enforces both the central laws as well as the state laws, unlike in USA, where the federal laws are enforced by the federal judiciary and the state laws are enforced by the state judiciary.

Directive Principles of State Policy

• According to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Directive Principles of State Policy is a ‘novel feature’ of the Indian Constitution.
• They are enumerated in Part IV of the Constitution. They can be classified into three broad categories–socialistic, Gandhian and liberal intellectual.
• The Directive Principles are meant for promoting the ideal of social and economic democracy. They seek to establish a ‘welfare state’ in India.

Fundamental Duties

• The original constitution did not provide for the Fundamental Duties of the citizens. These were added during the operation of internal emergency (1975–77) by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 added one more fundamental duty.
• The Part IV-A of the Constitution (which consists of only one Article 51-A) specifies the eleven Fundamental Duties viz., to respect the Constitution, national flag and national anthem; to protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country; to promote the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people; to preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture and so on.
• The fundamental duties serve as a reminder to citizens that while enjoying their rights, they have also to be quite conscious of duties they owe to their country, their society and to their fellow citizens. However, like the Directive Principles, the duties are also non-justiciable in nature.

Secular State

The Constitution of India stands for a Secular State. Hence, it does not uphold any particular religion as the official religion of the Indian State.

Universal Adult Franchise

• The Indian Constitution adopts universal adult franchise as a basis of elections to the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
• Every citizen who is not less than 18 years of age has a right to vote without any discrimination of caste, race, religion, sex, literacy, wealth and so on. The voting age was reduced to 18 years from 21 years in 1989 by the 61st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1988.
• The introduction of universal adult franchise by the Constitution-makers was a bold experiment and highly remarkable in view of the vast size of the country, its huge population, high poverty, social inequality and overwhelming illiteracy.

Single Citizenship

• Though the Indian Constitution is federal and envisages a dual polity (Centre and states), it provides for only a single citizenship, that is, the Indian citizenship.
• In India, all citizens irrespective of the state in which they are born or reside enjoy the same political and civil rights of citizenship all over the country and no discrimination is made between them.

Three-tier Government

• Originally, the Indian Constitution, like any other federal Constitution, provided for a dual polity and contained provisions with regard to the organisation and powers of the Centre and the states.
• Later, the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts (1992) have added a third-tier of Government (i.e., local) which is not found in any other Constitution of the world.