Constitution of India – Major Features

The salient features of the Indian Constitution are listed and briefed below:

1. Lengthiest Written Constitution

 Constitutions are classified into written, like the American Constitution, or unwritten, like the
British Constitution. The Constitution of India has the distinction of being the lengthiest and
most detailed constitutional document the world has so far produced. In other words, the
Constitution of India is the lengthiest of all the written constitutions of the world. It is a very
comprehensive, elaborate and detailed document.

 The factors that contributed to the elephantine size of the Indian Constitution are:

 Geographical factors, that is, the vastness of the country and its diversity.

 Historical factors, for instance, the influence of the Government of India Act of 1935,
which was bulky.

 Single constitution for both the Centre and the states.

 The dominance of legal luminaries in the Constituent Assembly.

2. 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 Act of 1935 [About 250
provisions of the 1935 Act have been included in the Constitution].

 The structural part of the Constitution is, to a large extent, derived from the Government of
India Act of 1935.

 The philosophical part of the Constitution (Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles
of State Policy) derives its inspiration from the American and Irish Constitutions respectively.

 The political part of the Constitution (the principle of Cabinet government and the relations
between the executive and the legislature) has been largely drawn from the British
Constitution.

3. Blend of Rigidity and Flexibility

 Constitutions are classified into rigid and flexible. A rigid constitution is one that requires a
special procedure for its amendment, for example, the American Constitution. A flexible
constitution is one that can be amended in the same manner as ordinary laws are made, for
example, the British Constitution. The Indian Constitution is a unique example of a
combination of rigidity and flexibility. A constitution may be called rigid or flexible on the
basis of its amending procedure. The Indian Constitution provides for three types of
amendments ranging from simple to most difficult procedures depending on the nature of
the amendment.

4. Federal System with Unitary Bias

 The Constitution of India establishes a federal system of government. It contains all the usual
features of a federation, such as two governments, division of powers, written constitution,
the supremacy of the constitution, the rigidity of the Constitution, independent judiciary and
 bicameralism. However, the Indian Constitution also contains a large number of unitary or
non-federal features, such as a strong Centre, a single Constitution, the appointment of a
state governor by the Centre, all-India services, an integrated judiciary, and so on.

 Moreover, the term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the Constitution.

 Article 1 describes India as a ‘Union of States’ which implies two things:

 Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states.

 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’, and ‘quasi-federal’ by K C Wheare.

5. Parliamentary Form of Government

 The Constitution of India has opted for the British Parliamentary System of Government
rather than the American Presidential system of government. The parliamentary system is
based on the principle of cooperation and coordination between the legislative and
executive organs while the presidential system is based on the doctrine of separation of
powers between the two organs.

 The Constitution establishes the parliamentary system not only at the Centre but also in the
States. In a parliamentary system, the role of the Prime Minister has become so significant,
and therefore it is called a ‘Prime Ministerial Government’.

What are the features of parliamentary government in India?

The features of parliamentary government in India are as follows:

 Presence of real and nominal executives

 Majority party rule

 Collective responsibility of the executive to the legislature

 Membership of the ministers in the legislature

 The leadership of the prime minister or the chief minister

 Dissolution of the lower house (Lok Sabha or Assembly)

 Indian Parliament is not a sovereign body like the British Parliament

 Parliamentary Government combined with an elected President at the head (Republic)

6. Synthesis of Parliamentary Sovereignty and Judicial Supremacy

 The doctrine of the 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 the 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 can declare parliamentary laws unconstitutional through its
power of judicial review. The Parliament can amend the major portion of the Constitution
through its constituent power.

7. Rule of Law

 According to this axiom, people are ruled by law and that law is sovereign in democracy.

There is no room for arbitrariness and each individual enjoys some fundamental rights.

The Constitution of India has incorporated this principle in Part III and in order to provide meaning to
Article 14 (all are equal before the law and all enjoy equal protection of laws.

8. Integrated and Independent Judiciary

 India has a single integrated judicial system. Also, the Indian Constitution establishes
Independent Judiciary by enabling the Indian judiciary to be free from the influence of the
executive and the legislature.

 The Supreme Court stands as the apex court of the judicial system. Below the Supreme Court
are the High Courts at the state level. Under a high court, there is a hierarchy of subordinate
courts, that is district courts and the other lower courts. The Supreme Court is a federal
court, the highest court of appeal, the guarantor of the fundamental rights of the citizens
and the guardian of the Constitution. Hence, the Constitution has made various provisions to
ensure its independence.

9. Fundamental Rights

 Part III of the Indian Constitution guarantees six fundamental rights to all Citizens which are
one of the important features of the Indian Constitution.

 The Constitution contains the basic principle that every individual is entitled to enjoy certain
rights as a human being and the enjoyment of such rights does not depend upon the will of
any majority or minority. No majority has the right to abrogate such rights. The fundamental
rights are meant for promoting the idea of political democracy. They are justiciable in nature,
that is, enforceable by the courts for their violation.

10. 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. The Directive
Principles were included in our Constitution in order to provide social and economic justice
to our people.

 Directive Principles aim at establishing a welfare state in India where there will be no
concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. They are non-justiciable in nature.

11. Fundamental Duties

 The original constitution did not provide for the fundamental duties of the citizens.
Fundamental Duties were added to our Constitution by the 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 on
the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. It lays down a list of ten Fundamental
 Duties for all citizens of India. Later, the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 added
one more fundamental duty.

 While the rights are given as guarantees to the people, the duties are obligations that every
citizen is expected to perform. However, like the Directive Principles of State Policy, the
duties are also non-justiciable in nature.

12. Indian Secularism

 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.

 The distinguishing features of a secular democracy contemplated by the Constitution of India

are:

 The State will not identify itself with or be controlled by any religion;

 While the State guarantees everyone the right to profess whatever religion one
chooses to follow (which includes also the right to be an antagonist or an atheist), it
will not accord preferential treatment to any of them;

 No discrimination will be shown by the State against any person on account of his
religion or faith; and

 The right of every citizen, subject to any general condition, to enter any office under
the state will be equal to that of fellow citizens. Political equality which entitles any
Indian citizen to seek the highest office under the State is the heart and soul of
secularism as envisaged by Constitution. The Indian constitution embodies
the positive concept of secularism, i.e., giving equal respect to all religions or
protecting all religions equally.

13. Universal Adult Franchise

 Indian democracy functions on the basis of ‘one person one vote’. Every citizen of India who
is 18 years of age or above is entitled to vote in the elections irrespective of caste, sex, race,
religion or status. The Indian Constitution establishes political equality in India through the
method of universal adult franchise.

14. Single Citizenship

 In a federal state usually, the citizens enjoy double citizenship as is the case in the USA. In
India, there is only single citizenship. It means that every Indian is a citizen of India,
irrespective of the place of his/her residence or place of birth. All the citizens of India can
secure employment anywhere in the country and enjoy all the rights equally in all parts of
India. The Constitution makers deliberately opted for single citizenship to
eliminate regionalism and other disintegrating tendencies. Single citizenship has
undoubtedly forged a sense of unity among the people of India.

15. Independent Bodies

 The Indian Constitution not only provides for the legislative, executive and judicial organs of
the government (Central and state) but also establishes certain independent bodies.
 They are envisaged by the Constitution as the bulwarks of the democratic system of
Government in India.

16. Emergency Provisions

 The Constitution makers also foresaw that there could be situations when the government
could not be run as in ordinary times. To cope with such situations, the Constitution
elaborates on emergency provisions.

 There are three types of emergency

 Emergency caused by war, external aggression or armed rebellion [Aricle 352]

 Emergency arising out of the failure of constitutional machinery in states [Article 356
& 365]

 Financial emergency [Article 360].

 The rationality behind the incorporation of these provisions is to safeguard the sovereignty,
unity, integrity and security of the country, the democratic political system and the
Constitution. During an emergency, the central government becomes all-powerful and the
states go into total control of the centre.

17. Three-tier Government

 Originally, the Indian 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 (that is, Local
Government), which is not found in any other Constitution of the world.

 The 73rd Amendment Act of 1992 gave constitutional recognition to the panchayats (rural
local governments) by adding a new Part IX and a new Schedule 11 to the Constitution.

 Similarly, the 74th Amendment Act of 1992 gave constitutional recognition to the
municipalities (urban local government) by adding a new Part IX-A and a new Schedule 12 to
the Constitution.

18. Co-operative Societies

 The 97th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2011 gave constitutional status and protection
of cooperative societies. The new Part IX-B contains various provisions to ensure that the
cooperative societies in the country function in a democratic, professional, autonomous and
economically sound manner. It empowers the Parliament in respect of multi-state
cooperative societies and the state legislatures in respect of other cooperative societies to
make the appropriate law.