Features of Indian Constitution

Features of Indian constitution ranges from being the lengthiest written constitution to parliamentary form of government and balance of power between different institutions. In this article, you will learn about the important features of Indian constitution, constitutionalism, unitary and federal features of Indian constitution, sources of Indian constitution and its criticism providing key insights for GS Paper-II Polity and Governance section of UPSC IAS Exam.

Table of Content

• Salient features of any constitution
• Key features of Constitutionalism
• Difference between Constitution and Constitutionalism
• Nature and Salient features of Indian Constitution
• Factors responsible for bulky constitution of India
• Key features of parliamentary government in India
• Differences between Indian parliamentary system and British parliamentary system
• Key features of the Indian constitution derived from other country
• Criticisms of the Indian Constitution
• Salient Features of Indian constitution conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

Salient features of any constitution:

• The Constitutions can be classified as written or unwritten; rigid or flexible; parliamentary system of government or presidential system of government.
• A written constitution is a single document that contains the fundamental laws of a country.
  • Example: The United States’ Constitution.
• An unwritten constitution is a body of laws and customs that are not codified in a structured manner.
  • Example: The United Kingdom’s Constitution.
• A rigid constitution is a constitution that is difficult to amend and requires a special procedure for its amendment.
  • Example: The United States Constitution.
• A flexible constitution is a constitution that can be amended easily like an ordinary law with simple procedures.
  • Example: The United Kingdom’s Constitution.
• The parliamentary system of government is based on the principle of cooperation and coordination between the legislative and executive branches.
  • This means that the two branches work together to make decisions to carry out the government’s agenda.
• The presidential system of government is based on the doctrine of separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.
  • This means that the two branches are kept separate from each other, with each branch having its own powers and responsibilities.
• The doctrine of sovereignty of Parliament is linked with the British Parliament.
• The doctrine of judicial supremacy is linked with the American Supreme Court.

Key features of Constitutionalism:

• The Constitutionalism is a philosophy that form the basis of any democratic setup as it provides a safeguard to every citizen of a State by not undermining any rights or freedoms guaranteed to its citizens. 
• The Constitutionalism seeks to limit the powers of the government and ensure democratic functioning.
• Other features of Constitutionalism are:
  • Popular sovereignty
  • The supremacy of the Constitution and Rule of Law
  • Political Democracy
  • Representative Limited Government
  • Separation of Power
  • Civilian Control of the Military force
  • Police governed by Law and Judicial Control
  • An Independent Judiciary

Difference between Constitution and Constitutionalism

Nature and Salient features of Indian Constitution:

Lengthiest Written Constitution:

• The Constitution of India is the lengthiest of all the written Constitutions of the world.
• Originally it contained- a Preamble, 395 Articles (22 Parts) and 8 Schedules.
• After amendment: deleted 20 Articles and one Part and added 95 Articles, 4 Parts (IVA, IXA, IXB and XIVA) and 4 Schedules.

Drawn From Various Sources:

• The philosophical part of the Constitution of India which includes the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, is inspired from the constitutions of other countries.
• The structural part is derived from the Government of India Act of 1935.
• The political framework is drawn from the British Constitution such as Cabinet Government and the relations between the Executive and the Legislature.

Balancing Rigidity and Flexibility:

• India’s constitution is neither rigid nor flexible, but a combination of both.
• Rigid under Article 368:
  • Some subjects require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Parliament and ratification by half of the states.
  • Some subjects can be amended by a special majority of the Parliament and with the ratification by half of the total states.
• Flexible: Some provisions of the Indian Constitution can be amended with a simple majority of the Parliament.

Balanced Federal and Unitary features of Indian constitution:

• Federal features of Indian constitution:
  • Different government for state and centre
  • Division of powers
  • Supremacy of constitution
  • Rigidity of constitution
  • Independent judiciary and bicameralism
• Unitary features of Indian constitution:
  • Strong Centre
  • Single Constitution for the whole country
  • Single citizenship
  • Integrated judiciary
  • Appointment of a governor by the Centre
  • All-India services
  • During Emergency provisions the power is exercised on the direction of Central government
• Article 1 of the Indian Constitution describes India as a “Union of States.”
  • The Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states.
  • No state has the right to secede from the federation.
• This feature is also described as- federal in form but unitary in spirit, quasi-federal, bargaining federalism, co–operative federalism etc.

Parliamentary Form of Government:

• Similar to the British Parliamentary System of Government, also known as the Westminster’ Model of Government, responsible Government and Cabinet Government.
• In the parliamentary system, the legislative and executive branches of government cooperates and coordinates with each other.

Balancing Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy:

• In India neither parliament nor Judiciary is supreme, rather Constitution is supreme.
• The Parliament can amend the major portion of the Constitution through its constituent power.
• The Supreme Court in India can declare the parliamentary laws as unconstitutional under judicial review.
• The scope of power of judicial review of the Supreme Court in India is narrower than the US’ Supreme Court.

Integrated and Independent Judiciary:

• The Supreme Court in India is the head of the integrated judicial system in the country followed by the high court, district courts and other lower courts.
• Independent: security of tenure of the judges, expenses charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, prohibition on discussion on the conduct of judges in the legislatures etc.

Fundamental Rights:

• Fundamental Rights limits the tyranny of the executive and arbitrary laws framed by the legislature.
• Fundamental Rights are justiciable and enforceable by the courts in case of their violation.
• Fundamental Rights are not absolute and subject to reasonable restrictions.
• Fundamental Rights can be suspended during the National Emergency except the rights guaranteed by Articles 20 and 21.

Directive Principles of State Policy:

• Directive Principles of State Policy directs the policy formation and imposes a moral obligation on the state authorities for their application.
• Directive Principles of State Policy are classified as- socialistic, Gandhian and liberal intellectual.
• Directive Principles of State Policy are non-justiciable and not enforceable by the courts in case of their violation.

Fundamental Duties:

• Fundamental Duties serves as a reminder to citizens that they have responsibilities to their country, society, and fellow citizens similar to the way they have rights.
• Fundamental Duties were added by the 42^nd Constitutional Amendment Act.

Secular State:

• No religion is declared as the state religion.
• Indian secularism has positive aspect of secularism: giving equal respect to all religions or protecting all religions equally.
• The Western countries follows negative aspect of secularism with complete separation between the religion and the state.
• Though communal representation is abolished, reservation of seats for the depressed classes is still present.

Universal Adult Franchise:

• Under Universal Adult Franchise, every citizen who is not less than 18 years of age has a right to vote without being discriminated on the basis of caste, race, religion, sex etc.
• The voting age was reduced to 18 years by the 61^st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1988.

Single Citizenship:

• Even though having features of federal character, Indian citizenship is unitary for all the states and the centre.
• All citizens irrespective of the state they belong to enjoy the same rights without any discrimination.

Independent Bodies:

• Some bodies act as the protector of the democratic system of Government in India such as Election Commission of India, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, Union and State Public Service Commission.
• Constitution provides various provisions with regards to appointment, removal, tenure etc that provides them independence.

Emergency Provisions:

• Emergency Provisions can be invoked to safeguard the sovereignty, unity, integrity and security of the country among other reasons.
  • Types: National emergency; State emergency and Financial emergency.

Three-tier Government:

• Originally India only had Central and State government-based governance.
• Unique features of Indian constitution: After the 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional Amendment added third-tier (local) Government (i.e., local) which is unique to India.

Co-operative Societies:

• 97^th Constitutional Amendment gave a constitutional status to co-operative societies by including articles in fundamental rights; Directive Principle of State Policy and adding Part IX-B.

Factors responsible for bulky constitution of India:

• India being rich in diversity, it was necessary to create so many laws and regulations in order to make an all–inclusive constitution.
• Major of its provision was derived from the Government of India Act of 1935, which itself was very lengthy.
• India has a single constitution that applies to both the central government and the state governments.
• The Constituent Assembly had plenty of lawyers and other persons belonging to the legal services, who had vast knowledge with regards to legal provisions.
• The Constitution of India is a comprehensive document that contains not only the fundamental principles of governance, but also detailed administrative provisions.
• Indian constitution also consists of many ordinary legislations and established political conventions which is left unwritten or undocumented by most other countries.

Key features of parliamentary government in India:

• Presence of both nominal (ceremonial head) and real executives (elected representatives).
• Majority party at the lower chamber of parliament (Lok Sabha) or legislative assembly rules.
• Executives are collectively responsibility to the legislature or specifically Lok Sabha.
• Ministers are members of the legislature or any of the parliamentary houses.
• The Prime Minister or the Chief Minister are leaders of the house and the government.
• Dissolution of the lower House (Lok Sabha or Assembly).

Differences between Indian parliamentary system and British parliamentary system:

• Indian Parliament is not a supreme body like the British Parliament.
  • In India, the Constitution is supreme.
• The India has an elected representative as a nominal head (republic) whereas the British has hereditary nominal head (monarchy).

Key features of the Indian constitution derived from other country:

Sources	Borrowed Features of Indian constitution
Features of Government of India Act of 1935	Federal Scheme Office of governor Judiciary Public Service Commissions Emergency provisions Administrative details
Features of British Constitution	Parliamentary government Rule of Law Legislative procedure Single citizenship Cabinet system Prerogative writs Parliamentary privileges Bicameralism First Past the Post system of elections Institution of the Speaker and her/his role
Features of American constitution	Fundamental rights Independence of judiciary Judicial review Impeachment of the president Removal of Supreme Court and High Court judges Post of vice-president
Features of Irish Constitution	Directive Principles of State Policy Nomination of members to Rajya Sabha Method of election of president
Features of Canadian Constitution	Federation with a strong Centre Vesting of residuary powers in the Centre Appointment of state governors by the Centre Advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
Features of Australian Constitution	Concurrent List Freedom of trade Commerce and inter-course Joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
Features of Weimar Constitution of Germany	Suspension of Fundamental Rights during Emergency.
Features of Soviet Constitution (now Russia)	Fundamental duties The ideal of justice (social, economic and political) in the Preamble.
Features of French Constitution	Republic The ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble.
Features of South African Constitution	Procedure for amendment of the Constitution Election of members of Rajya Sabha
Features of Japanese Constitution	Procedure established by Law

Criticisms of the Indian Constitution:

• Borrowed Constitution: Indian Constitution contains almost nothingnew and original, as most of its parts are derived from other constitution with certain modifications.
  • Also known as: bag of borrowings, a ‘hotch-potch Constitution’ or a patchwork of several documents of the world constitutions.
• Reproduction of the Government of India Act of 1935 Act: many of its provisions are derived directly from the British produced Act.
• Anti-Indian: as many of the provision fails to reflect the true and original traditions of India.
• Un-Gandhian Constitution: as it does not contain the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi except some additions being done in Directive Principles of State Policy, which is also not enforceable.
• Elephantine Size: as it contains many unnecessary provisions and acts that is not relevant to the present time.
• Lawyers’ craft: some provisions are documented in such a way that it becomes difficult for a common man except any lawyer to understand its language.

Salient Features of Indian constitution conclusion:

Though key features of constitution of India are derived from other countries as per the suitability of the Indian constitution, yet the makers of Indian constitution didn’t fails to cover almost every aspect of the World’s largest democracy. The main features of Indian constitution reduces chances of autocracy by giving balanced powers to each of its institution. The quasi federal features of Indian constitution makes it unique among the world.

Ref: Source-1

Other Articles in Polity & Governance
Directive Principles of State Policy	Criminal Justice System in India
Jurisdiction of Supreme Court	Governors of States
Powers of President of India	Federal and Unitary Features of Indian Constitution

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)