Constitution of India | Facts & Figures

• Framing of constitution of India went to Constituent Assembly under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.

• A drafting committee was appointed by the Constituent Assembly under the Chairmanship of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar-then Law Minister.

• The Constitution of India was enacted, signed and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949.

• The Constitution of India came into force on 26th January, 1950. It was on this day that India became a Republic.

• The Constitution of India consists of

a) The Preamble

b) Parts I to XXII, covering over 449 articles

c) Schedules 1-12

d) An Appendix

a) The Preamble:

• The 42nd Amendment in 1976 added the words ' Secular' & 'Socialist' to the Preamble.

• The preamble is an integral part, but not an essential part of the constitution.

• The Preamble may be consulted for determining the scope of

(i) Fundamental Rights (ii) Directive Principles of State Policy. (iii) to interpret constitutional provisions whereby the Preamble declares India to be a sovereign, Socialist, Secular, democratic, republic.

The Preamble serves the three basic purposes

(i) It indicates the source from which the Constitution derives its authority.

(ii) it states the objects that the constitution seeks to establish and promote.

(iii) the date of its adoption.

b) Important parts & Articles of the Constitution:

• Part III/Articles 12-35 ( Fundamental Rights)

• Part IV /Articles 36-51 ( Directive Principles of State Policy)

• Part VIII /Articles 239-241 ( Administration of Union Territories)

• Part XI ( Articles 245-263 ( Relations between the Union and the States)

• Part XVI/Articles 330-342( Special provision to certain classes SCs/STs, OBCs and Anglo Indians.

• Part XVIII/Articles 352-360 ( Emergency provisions)

• Part XX/ Article 368 ( Amendment of Constitution)

c) The Schedules:

• Schedules can be added to the Constitution by amendment.

• The original constitution only eight Schedules.

• The Ninth Schedule was the first Schedule added to the original constitution by the 1st Amendment of 1951 and the Twelfth Schedule is the latest schedule added by the 74th Amendment of 1992.

Important Schedules:

Sixth Schedule: ( Article 244 and 275) Deals with provisions regarding administration of tribal areas in the states of Assam , Meghalaya and Mizoram. This Schedule in the Conostitution amended in 1988 by the Act 67 of 1988, received the assent of the President on 16 December 1988, and was applied to the states of Tripura and Mizoram wef 16the December, 1988.

Seventh Schedule ( Article 246) deals with three lists of powers and subjects to be looked after by the Union and the States as follows:

(i) Union List:

• It comprises of subjects of all India importance like Defence, International Affairs, Railways, Post and Telegraph, Income tax, etc.

• The Parliament has the exclusive power to legislate on these subjects.

• It contains 97 subjects.

(ii) State List:

• Contains subjects of local importance.

• Normally the State Legislature alone legislates on these subjects.

• It contains 66 subjects.

(iii) Concurrent List: It contains subjects on which the Parliament as well as the State Legislature enjoy authority. According to 88th Amendment, service tax is to be levied, collected and appropriated by the union and the states.

Eighth Schedule ( Article 344 & 351)

Includes list of 22 regional language recognized by the Constitution.

Originally there were only 14 languages in the Schedule and the 15th Language ( Sindhi) was added by the 21st Amendment in 1967 and 3 languages - Konkani, Manipuri & Nepali were added by the 71st Amendment in 1992. In 2003 the 92nd Amendment added four more languages to the list-' Bodo, Dogri, Maithali and Santhali'.

The 22 regional languages as recognized by the Constitution are given below:

1. Assamese

2. Bengali

3. Bodo

4. Dogri

5. Gujrati

6. Hindi

7. Kannada

8. Kashmiri

9. Malayalam

10. Maithali

11. Marathi

12. Oriya

13. Punjabi

14. Sanskrit

15. Sindhi

16. Tamil

17. Telegu

18. Santhali

19. Urdu

20. Konkani

21. Manipuri

22. Nepali

Twelfth Schedule ( Article 243-W)

• It lists 18 subjects on which the Municipalities are given administrative controls.

• It was added to the constitution on 20th April, 1992 by the 74th Amendment in 1992.