MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSTITUTION
MEANING OF THE CONSTITUTION:
Constitution is a set of rules and regulations which is to be followed by all the citizens of country. It shows the relation between government and citizens. In the constitution it is mentioned that how the government and citizens should work. The term constitution comes through French from the latin word constitutio, used for rules and regulations such as imperial enactments .Basically in constitution it is told that how a country should run with the help and guidance ,enactments of law, different articles and how all the laws protect our rights. It is the supreme law of India. The book or document lays down the framework demarcating fundamentals political codes ,structures and procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights ,directive principles, duties of citizens. Constitution governs the law of country.
SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT CONSTITUTION:
- India has the world’s longest constitution
- The constitution of India was adopted on 26 nov 1949 after almost 2 yrs,11 months and 17 days the day which we celebrate as republic day since.
- Father of the Indian constitution is DR.BR.AMBEDKAR
- The original copies of the Indian constitution were written in Hindi and English. Each member of the constituent assembly that drafted the constitution signed two copies of the constitution one in Hindi and other in English
- In it’s current form our constitution consists of a Preamble,22 parts with 448 articles,12 schedules ,5 appendices and 115 amendments.
- Our original constitution of India was handwritten by Prem Behari Narain Raizada
- The constitutional assembly sat for total of 11 sessions .On 26th November 1949 the final draft of the constitution was ready and on 26th January 1950 it came into force
Why our constitutions is known as bag of borrowings?
Our Indian constitution is also called bag of borrowing because it has borrowed different provisions from different countries, however it is much more than a mere copy of other constitutions .The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity where borrowed from the French constitution ,the idea of supreme court was borrowed from the constitution of united states of America, the directive principles of the state policy were borrowed from Irish constitution ,the concept of five years plan was borrowed from the constitution of union of soviet socialist republics. The laws governing our supreme court and the concept of procedure established by law were adopted from the constitution of Japan. The concept of suspension of fundamental rights during emergency rule were taken from Weimar constitution of Germany. The preamble of Indian constitution was inspired by the USA’S Preamble Both the constitution starts from ‘we the people’.
- Note : Constitution is not mere a lawyers document it is a vehicle of life and it’s spirit is always the spirit of age.
Importance and need of constitution: Constitution is very necessary and important to run the country .It serves several purposes.
- It lays out certain ideals that form the basis of the kind of the country that we as a citizens aspire to live in. It helps to arrive at common consensus
- It upholds the beliefs and ideas of the citizen of the country
- Under the scheme of the Indian constitution and it’s provisions of universal adult franchise people exercise their sovereign power by casting vote and electing a union parliament through which they find expression
- Moreover the cooperation and coordination between the judicial and legislative organs is essential for the working of democratic constitution
Constitutions are needed not only to limit wielders of existing power but to empower those traditionally deprived of it. In short, constitutions strive for a delicate balance to ensure that the collective power of society invested in the state is neither dissipated or fragmented to become ineffective ,nor so tightly organized or untrammeled that it takes away our freed om and become oppressive. The idea of constitution is significant for poor and powerless people who can use their rights and can control state power. Sometimes Constitution is required to protect everyone against human vulnerability, sometimes human forget the values and cross the limitations and do wrong deeds to show the correct path the rules and regulations in constitution is necessary.
The most important thing of the constitution is that it limits the power of government by putting some restrictions and outlining a framework within which government should perform.
- For Example irrespective of who is the prime minister or home minister or their powers and positions remains the same
Their were different committees formed to prepare constitution so that the work would be distributed and completed under the expertise of particular scholars ,for example the chairman of drafting committee was Dr. Ambedkar he drafted the constitution with his all committee members, Union power committee was supervised by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ,Union constitution committee was headed by again Nehru, Provisional constitutional committee was headed by Vallabhbhai Patel, advisory committee on fundamental rights ,minorities and tribal excluded areas was headed by Vallabhai Patel and etc. Constitution is needed for everyone and must be followed by everyone be it judiciary, executive or legislative everyone has the right and simultaneously the restrictions they all must abide the constitution and follow it as a religious document .Constitution helps our country to become more democratic ,this document is rigid as well as flexible ,it is the mother of all laws all laws comes under ambit of it.
Without the constitution the democratic country is half people cannot enjoy their rights and privileges ,they will not know their restrictions their will be chaos all over the country ,totalitarian and authoritarian regime will get start and will be oppresses by some of the dominant groups and so they cannot enjoy their fundamental rights and will become powerless ,so to run a country constitution is necessary and thus our Indian constitution was formed which gives all the rights to the people and people can enjoy it with some reasonable restrictions. The discipline in the each and every field is maintained with the help of constitution. It is one of the ways to live morally and kindly in the society.
Author: vedant bajaj,
Symbiois law school nagpur,Ballb(hons) 1st yr student