Showing posts with label GK Indian Polity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GK Indian Polity. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Schedules of Indian Constitution

The constitution of India at the time of adoption had only eight Schedules to which four more were added during the succeeding 60 years.

  • First Schedule deals with territories of 28 states and seven union territories of the Indian Union.
  • Second Schedule deals with salaries, allowances etc. of President, Vice President, Speaker, Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts, Comptroller and Auditor General etc.

Important Articles of the Constitution of India

Articles - Subject
Part I
Ar . 1 – 4 – The Union and its Territory

Part II

Art. 5 to 11 – Citizenship

Part – III : Fundamental Rights

Art. 14.  Equality before law.
Art. 15. Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
Art. 16.  Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
Art. 17.  Abolition of Untouchability.
Art. 18.  Abolition of titles.

Sources of the Indian Constitution

The frame of the constitution was built on the basis of Government of India Act, 1935. However, many ideas were brought from other constitutions of the world as listed below-

  • Government of India Act 1935 - The federal scheme, Office of the Governor, Role of federal judiciary, Emergency provisions.
  • UK Constitution - Law making procedures, Parliamentary Government, Rule of Law, Single citizenship, Cabinet system
  • Canadian Constitution - Federal system, Federation with strong centre, Residuary powers in the centre

Members of Drafting Committee of Constitution of India

Drafting Committee, which bore the responsibility of drafting the Constitutional document during the recess of the Constituent Assembly, from July 1947 to Sept 1948, was formed on Aug 29, 1947.

Working of Constituent Assembly

  • December 9, 1946 : The first meeting of Constituent Assembly was held in the constitution hall(now 'Central Hall of Parliament House'). Demanding a separate state, the Muslim League boycotted the meeting. Dr.Sanchidanand Sinha was elected as temporary President of Assembly following the French practice.

Committees under the Constituent Assembly

  • Committee on the Rules of procedure - Rajendra Prasad
  • Drafting Committee - B.R. Ambedkar
  • Steering Committee - Rajendra Prasad

The Constituent Assembly and Making of Indian Constitution

The Constituent Assembly was set up while India was still under British rule, following negotiations between Indian leaders and members of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India from the United Kingdom. The Assembly members were elected to it indirectly by the members of the individual provincial legislative assemblies, and initially included representatives for those provinces which came to form part of Pakistan, some of which are now within Bangladesh. The Constituent Assembly had 217 representatives, including 15 women.

The Indian Independence Act, 1947

Indian Independence Act was passed in June 1947, which specified the following:
  • The British rule of India should be over on the midnight of August 15, 1947.
  • An independent dominion of India shall be created out of the United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency, the Carnatic, East Punjab, West Bengal, Assam and the Northeast Frontier Agency. The territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep Islands are also turned over to the Indian Dominion.

The Mountbatten Plan

Lord Mountbatten worked out a detailed plan for the transfer of power to the Indian people. The salient features of the Mountbatten plan were as follows-

  • Muslim-dominated areas may be separated to form a Dominion In that case such domination would be constituted by a partition of Bengal and the Punjab.
  • A referendum in North-West Frontier Province would decide whether it should join Pakistan or not.

Cabinet Mission Plan

Main Provisions of the Cabinet Mission Plan:
  • The Cabinet Mission proposed two-tiered federal plan which was expected to maintain national unity while conceding the largest measure of regional autonomy:
  • There was to be a federation of the provinces and the States, with the federal central controlling only defence, foreign affairs and communications.

Cripps Mission

The Cripps Mission came to India in 1942 headed by Sir Stafford Cripps, a socialist member of the war cabinet, to negotiate with Indian leaders on behalf of the British government. When the entire world was at midst of Second World War, the British government in India declared the participation of India in the war in favour of Allied Powers. This was done without consulting the Indian political leaders or the elected representatives of the parties. This provoked the crowd who reacted to this injustice where it was the Indians who were to lay their lives for a war out of which they themselves would hardly win anything. As a result the mission on its arrival was received with a huge countrywide protest resulting into a complete failure.

Government of India Act of 1935

The round table conferences of the early 1930's as well as a White Paper published in 1933 formed the basis for what would become the Government of India Act of 1935. The important clauses of the act were:

Simon Commission

The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament that had been dispatched to India in 1927 to study constitutional reform. The Commission was named Simon Commission, following the name of the chairperson of the Commission Sir John Simon.

Government of India act of 1919

This was the next major revision of the administration policy of the British in India. The earlier Morley-Minto reforms had failed to satisfy the aspirations of the nationalists and hence a report was tabled called the Montague-Chelmsford report which eventually became the Government of India act of 1919. The British aimed to subdue nationalist feelings by involving Indians more in the administration.

Government of India Act, 1915

This act was passed to consolidate the provisions of the proceeding Government of India Acts.

Indian Council Act 1909 or Morley – Minto Reforms

  • Morley was the Secretary of State, while Minto was the Indian Viceroy.
  • Legislative Councils, both at the Centre and in the Provinces, were expanded.
  • With regard to Central Government, an Indian member was taken in the Executive Council of the Governor General.

Indian Councils Act 1892

Two improvements in both the Central and the Provincial Legislative Councils were suggested to the following :
  • Though the majority of the official members was retained, the Non – Official members were to be nominated by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Provincial Legislative Councils ( The Non – Official members of the Provincial Councils were to be nominated by certain local bodies such as Universities, District Boards, Municipalities]. Indian leaders like G.K.Gokhale, Ashutosh Mukherjee, Ras Bihari Ghosh and S.N.Banerjee found their way in the Legislative Council.

Indian Councils Act of 1861

  • For the first time the Act introduces the representative institutions in India. It enabled the Governor- General to associate representatives of the Indian people with the work of legislation by nominating them to his expanded council.

Government of India Act, 1858

The first war of Indian Independence in 1857 brought the career of East India Company to an end. In 1858, the Government of India was placed directly under the crown through the Secretary of State for India and all the matters were to be seen by him. This Act had three parts:

The Charter Act of 1853

  • Laid foundation of Parliamentary system of Government, the executive and legislative separated. Legislative Assembly functioned in the model of British Parliament.
  • Renewed the term of East India Company for an indefinite period;

Submit your Career Questions below!

Name

Email *

Message *