Constitution development and making

Constitution Day was also celebrated on 26 November this year, the Government of India organized a grand event in the Central Hall of the Parliament to remind the citizens that the Constituent Assembly adopted the Indian Constitution 72 years ago. As usual, speeches were made about the greatness of the Constitution. But politics was not completely excluded. In fact, there is always an unexpected prediction about these speeches. This is largely attributed to the hierarchy of the political class.

It is not certain whether the various speeches delivered on this occasion every year have made India’s younger generation aware of the historical background of the Constitution. It is a reasonable guess that the new generation in this country knows very little about the freedom struggle led by Gandhi and the Congress.

a refresher

Let me tell you some facts for the information of this generation. The making of the constitution is not an isolated and accidental event in the sense that one fine morning, some barristers and jurists came together to decide that India needed a constitution and started writing it. It is the culmination of long years of struggle for independence that devoured countless precious lives of common Indians. The Indian National Congress, led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, called for a Constituent Assembly in 1935 to draft a constitution for independent India, and Nehru wanted the assembly to be elected on the basis of adult suffrage. As it happened, the Constituent Assembly was formed 11 years later in 1946, but the election was held on the basis of communal representation.

After nearly three years of hard work, the constitution was completed in November 1949 and adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November. However, the Constitution was adopted and signed on that day by the President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. It was implemented only on January 26, 1950. This date was chosen because it was on this day in 1930 that the Indian National Congress under the chairmanship of Nehru declared ‘Purna Swaraj’ (complete independence) for India. Thus, the history of the Constitution is closely linked to the history of the Congress and the freedom movement.

Nehru’s Contribution

Any celebration of Constitution Day will be incomplete if the contribution of Nehru in the making of the Constitution is not remembered. It was his Objective Resolution that formed the Preamble of the Constitution. It contained the philosophy, vision and goal of the Constitution. The ideas thrown out by the European Renaissance, America’s independence and the French Revolution greatly influenced him. The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity and freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, justice-socio-economic and politics entered the Indian Constitution under the influence of Nehru.

It is an interesting view that India’s mainstream society, which is structurally incapable of imbibing the ideas of equality and social justice, has suffered terrible inconvenience from the inevitability of equality and social justice. The Constitution ushered in an era of equality, marking a complete stop with an unpleasant past.

Ambedkar’s choice

Dr. BR Ambedkar is, of course, remembered more often in the context of the Constitution and in political contexts. However, it is difficult to remember a single memorable speech by any politician about the contribution of Dr. Ambedkar in the formulation and solidification of the concept of social equality in the Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar perhaps incidentally became the chairman of the drafting committee.

He admits in one of his famous speeches to the Constituent Assembly that he had come there to plead for the Depressed Classes, but the Assembly made him the Chairman. Dr. Ambedkar was an original thinker and a very perceptive social scientist, with a keen understanding of the terrible structural inadequacies of Hindu society and its philosophical pretensions.

He radically avoided with Gandhi on many important issues and had serious differences with the Congress. He ridiculed civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha and said, “These methods are nothing but the grammar of anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us”. But the Constituent Assembly, which had an overwhelming majority of Congressmen, elected him as the chairman of the Drafting Committee. The great men who led the freedom movement and guided the making of the constitution showed tremendous foresight in choosing Dr. Ambedkar to draft the constitution.

on accountability

The speeches delivered on Constitution Day were expected to contain references to the judiciary. Many such references are undoubtedly about the Supreme Court. Of course, Constitution Day cannot pass without Pontifical remarks about the role and responsibility of the judiciary, especially the apex court. Judicial accountability is an issue that plagues the political class.

The Preamble to the Constitution begins with “We, the people of India”. The people are sovereign, and every organ of the state is ultimately accountable to them. But, accountability is a subtle term that is understood or interpreted differently in different contexts. In a parliamentary system with a cabinet form of government, the executive is accountable to the legislature, as the legislature consists of the people’s representatives. Therefore, if the legislature withdraws support to the government, it does not survive.

Similarly, legislators are accountable to the public who elect them. They have to go back to him every five years. But, how is judicial accountability dealt with by the Constitution? Recently, this interesting issue was raised by the current Chief Justice of India NV Ramana in one of his thought-provoking speeches in the context of Constitution Day celebrations on 26 November. He said, “The framers of the Constitution have made accountability an integral element with respect to the legislature and the executive. However, they deliberately chose to keep the judiciary running. [a] separate seat. This is a clear explanation of the constitutional position of the judiciary face to face Other organs of the state with respect to accountability

a different seat

Serious students of the Constitution can easily agree with the learned Chief Justice of India as the Constitution does not burden the judiciary with the same accountability as the executive and the legislature. The mandate given to the judiciary is to do justice to the people, and therefore, the constitution has made it an independent institution, which is neither accountable to the executive nor the functions of the legislature. Article 142 brings in the concept of complete justice.

The apex court, where all the litigation ends, is mandated to do complete justice. To be able to do so, the judiciary has been placed on a different pedestal. One can agree without hesitation with the Chief Justice of India when he says “they (the Constitution makers) relied on the ability of the men and women who would adorn the Bench in upholding the Constitution”. Who can deny that the principle of ‘infrastructure’ propounded by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati case has in a way saved the Constitution from being distorted by politicians who neither believe in democracy nor in justice. ? An independent judiciary that does not have to look over its shoulders is the pride of the Republic of India. The accountability of the judiciary in the political sense is a disaster. “We, the people of India” made it independent so that it would do full justice to us. The Chief Justice of India knew what he was saying.

PDT Acharya is former Secretary General of Lok Sabha