Constitution:

Constitution:

The Modern State is considered to be a state for the welfare of the people. It is therefore, suggested that it should have a government of a particular form with appropriate powers and functions. The document containing laws and rules which determine and describe the form of the government, the relationship between the citizens and the government, is called a Constitution.

A constitution is a body of fundamental principles according to which a state is constituted or governed. It specifies basic allocation of power in the society.

A constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is the basic structure which defines the powers of the state and the rights and duties of the citizens.

A constitution is a set of basic rules that determine the nature of a state, the structure of its Government and the distribution of power within it. Thus a constitution is not merely a set of working rules, but is also a device by which power is distributed and limits of authority are set.

According to Gilchrist, a constitution consists of “that body of rules and laws, written and unwritten, which determines the organization of government, the distribution of powers of the various organs of the government and the general principles on which those powers are exercised.”

A constitution is the basic fundamental law of a State. It lays down the objectives of the State which it has to achieve. It also provides for the constitutional framework that is, various structures and organs of the governments at different levels. In addition, it describes the rights and duties of the citizens. It is, therefore, considered to be the basis for the governance of the country both in terms of goals and objectives as also their structures and functions.

Every constitution represents the vision and the values of its founding fathers and is based on the social, political and economic ethos and faith and aspirations of the people. A constitution is a frame of political community giving expression to the national consciousness, aspirations, ideals and goals of a people as developed through their history. Thus a constitutional state is a result of historical process. The constitution of India is the culmination and expression of the aspirations of the Indian people to be free from the yoke of British imperialism and guide their destiny so as to follow a path of economic prosperity and social justice.

Functions of the constitution:

1.      The first function of a constitution is to provide a set of basic rules that allow for minimal coordination members of a society.

2.      The second function of a constitution is to specify who has the power to make decisions in a society. It decides how the government will be constituted.

3.      Third function of a constitution is to set limits on what a government can impose on its citizens. These limits are fundamental in the sense that government may never trespass them.

Constitution not only set limits on the power of Government, more positively, a constitution may enshrine the aspirations of a society.

The framers of the Indian constitution,  for e.g. Thought that each individual in society should have all that is necessary for them to lead a life of minimal dignity and social self respect, minimum material well being, education etc.

4.      The forth function of a constitution is to enable the government to fulfill the aspirations of a society and create conditions for a just society.

A constitution expresses the fundamental identity of people.

A constitution is not only what is written in the text of the constitution. A constitution is a living organism of functioning institutions. It keeps constantly growing, evolving. Every constitution gets meaning and content only from the manner in which and the people by whom it is operated, the effects it acquires from how it is interpreted by courts of the land and the conventions and practices that grow around it in the actual process of its working.

The first major achievement of independent India was the framing of a new Constitution, a constitution based on the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Our present constitution- the first Constitution of India framed and given to themselves by the people of India- was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November, 1949. It came into full operation with effect from 26 January, 1950. The constitution as originally adopted had 22 parts, 395 articles and 8 schedules. Its present text is as amended from time to time. During the last 60 years, there have been more than 90 amendments.

The very fact that the Constitution of the Indian Republic is the product not of a political revolution but of the research and deliberations of a body of eminent representatives of the people who sought to improve upon the existing system of administration. The sources of the Constitution of India are diverse and many. These are both indigenous and foreign. The founding fathers made it very clear that they were not writing on a clean slate. They took a conscious decision not to make a complete departure from the past, but to build on the existing structure and experience of institutions already established. The constitution of India had an organic growth. It evolved through the interaction between various demands for representative-responsible governmental institutions during the nationalist struggles for independence and the small doses of constitutional reforms grudgingly granted by the British rulers from time to time. Howsoever rudimentary in form in the early stages, the process of political institution-building – particularly the legislatures-in the modern sense of the term can be gauged from as early as the late 1920s onwards. In fact, the sources of some of the provisions of the Constitution can be traced back to the beginning of the East India Company and the British rule in India.