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Which Road to Social Revolution ?

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                                         Which Road to Social Revolution ?         Since the End of First World War , there were two revolutions running parallel in India , the national and the social revolution . It was believed that the national revolution would be completed with the independence but the social revolution must go on . According to K. Santhanam a prominent southern member of the Assembly ,  there were three revolutions at that time , Political , Social and Economic revolution . The political revolution would end with independence . The social revolution meant to get India out of the medievalism based on birth , religion , custom , and community and reconstruct her social structure on modern foundations of law , individual merit , and secular education . The third revolution was an economic one , which was the transition from primitive rural economy to scientific and planned agriculture and industry . The Constituent Assembly's task was to draft a

Origin of Indian Constituent Assembly

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Origin of Constituent Assembly in India  By the end of the War, as we have seen, India was ready for a constituent assembly and her leaders were demanding one. Gandhi expressed the truth first - that Indians must shape their own destiny, that only in the hands of Indians could India become herself, when in 1922 he said that Swaraj would not be the gift of the British Parliament, but must spring from ' the wishes of the people of India as expressed through their freely chosen representatives '. The demand for a constituent assembly became a part of the official policy of Indian National Congress in 1934. Refusing to accept the  White Paper  (The Proposal for Indian Constitutional Reform, of 1933) , because it did not express 'the will of the people of India ' , the Congress Working Committee stated :   The only alternative to the White Paper is a constitution drawn up by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise or as a near it as possi

Protection of Linguistic Minority Rights

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Protection of Linguistic Minority Rights and Non-Discrimination on Grounds of Religion Article 29 enunciated  the fundamental right of any section of citizens residing anywhere in India to conserve its distinct language, script of culture. No citizen can be denied admission in any educational instiution maintained or aided by the State on grounds of language, religion, etc. Article 30 seeks to protect the rights of all minorities - based on languages - to establish and administer  educational institutions of their choice. The State is enjoined not to discriminate against any educational institution on the ground of its language or religion - based management. Article 350A inserted by Seventh Amendment provides for local authorities in every state endeavouring to extend adequate facilities for instruction in the mother toungue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups and for the President necessary directios to any State. The

Attorney General of India

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Attorney General of India Under the chapter on 'The Executive', the Constitution includes a provision (article 76) for the President appointing a person qualified to be a Supreme Court judge as the Attorney-General of India to advise the Government on legal matters and perform other duties of a legal nature as may be assigned. The Attorney General of India holds office during the pleasure of the President. However, inasmuch as he is appointed on that with a change of Government, he submits his resignation. The Attorney-General is the Chief Law Officer of the Government. He has the first right of audience in all courts in India. Also, he has the right to speak and take part in the proceedings of either House of Parliament without a right to vote. He is not a full-time officer of the House nor is he a member of the Cabinet as in U.K. Also, he is not barred from from private practice except that he cannot advise or hold briefs against the Government of India.  [

India that is Bharat

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Article 1 of Indian Constitution lays down that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.  The question of the name of the country was discussed in the Constituent Assembly at some length. While 'Bharat' was the ancient name and represented the first expression of the consciousness of the unity and identity of the country,  India was the modern name by which the country had since become known all over the world. As a member of the United Nations also the name was India and all international  agreements were entered in that name. Both the names, therefore, had strong votaries. Finally, the name 'India, that is Bharat' was adopted as a happy compromise. The emphasis on India being a 'Union' was to convey the fact that it was not  the result of a compact or agreement between the Constituent Assembly which derived  its power and authority from the sovereign people of India. No state could, therefore secede from the Union nor could it suo motu va

Right to Property Under Indian Constitution

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Right To Property Under Indian Constitution                                                        Image source:electionl.in                                                           The circumstances and the process of transformation of the right to property are an object lesson in the complexity of constitutional law . The original Article 31 (1) simply asserted that no person would be deprived of his property save by authority of law . Clause (2) of the same article provided that no property could be taken possession of , or acquired . Unless the law provided for compensation or specified the principles on which the compensation was to determined and paid . After a series of judicial cases on the adequacy of the amount of compensation , Parliament made the 4th amendment of the constitution in 1955 replacing the word 'compensation' by 'amount' and declaring that no law fixing the amount or laying down the principles for determining such amount could be

Idea of Constitutionalism

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Idea of Constitutionalism  The father of Politics Aristotle in his famous book on politics defined constitution in two ways: normative and descriptive. In descriptive he defined the constitution as “the arrangement and positions of the magistracies in a state”. He said, the government is everywhere the sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government. In the normative aspect of the constitution he described: A constitution is the organization of offices in a state and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution, they are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed against offenders. When the citizens at large administer the state for the common interest, the government is called by the generic name – a constitution. According to Aristotle, such a form of government is a constitutional governm

Need For An Official Language

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Need For An Official Language :- Languages offered a special problem to the makers of the Constitution simply because of the plurality of languages used by the vast population. As now we are more than 1.3 billion in population. It is something amazing to think that no less than  1650 languages, including about 60 non-Indian languages, are currently in use in Indian subcontinent. The makers of the Constitution had, therefore, to select some of these languages as the recognized medium of official communication in order to save the country from a hopeless confusion. Fortunately for them, the number of people speaking each of these 1650 languages  was not anything like proportionate and some languages (included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution) could easily be picked up as the major languages of India, used by 91% of the total population of the country, and out of them, Hindi, including its kindred variants Urdu and Hindustani, could claim 46 percent. Hindi Devanagari

History of Directive Principles

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History of Directive Principles -  The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles (DP / DPSP) have a common origin. The Nehru Report of 1928 (All Parties Conference Committee Report, 1928. It was chaired by Motilal Nehru. Hence is popularly known as Nehru Committee Report) which contained a Swaraj Constitution of India incorporated some fundamental rights. These included such rights as the right of elementary education. The Sapru Report of 1945 (Constitutional proposals of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru Committee, 1945) clearly divided the fundamental rights into two categories - justiciable and non-justiciable. Sir B. N. Rau, Constitutional Adviser to the Constituent Assembly advised that the individual rights should be divided into two categories. Those which can be enforeced by a court and those which are not so enforceable. The latter he thought are moral  precepts for the authorities of the State. His suggestion was accepted by the Drafting Committee. As a result we have Fu

Language to be used in the Legislature

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Language to be used in the Legislature: Article 210 lays down that the business in the Legislature of a State shall be transacted in the official Language or Languages of the State or in Hindi or in English. It is further provided that the words in English shall be deemed to have been omitted on the expiration of 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution. Power has been conferred on the State to enact a law for continuance of English as an alternate language. In regard to those States, which were not in existence on 26th of January 1950, but were formed later, the period of 15 years has been further extended to 25 years in case of Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura and to 40 years in case of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Mizoram. The Speaker of Legislative Assembly or Chairman of the Legislative Council has the power to permit any member who cannot adequately express himself in the State Official Language or in Hindi or in English to address the House in

High Court For A Union Territory In India

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High Court For A Union Territory In India Delhi High Court Indian Parliament by law constitute a High Court for a Union Territory . High Courts exercising jurisdiction over a Union Territory shall continue to exercise jurisdiction till it is changed by law. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has jurisdiction over Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory as well as capital of two states i.e. Haryana and Punjab. The Kerala High Court caters to Lakshadweep. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are under the Calcutta High Court. Pondicherry falls under Madras High Court. The Mumbai High Court is the High Court for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, as also for Daman and Diu. Delhi has its own High Court since 1966.