essay on powers of parliament to amend the constitution in wide but not unlimited
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The Constitution of India lays down the framework on which Indian polity is run. The Constitution declares India to be a sovereign socialist democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty. It was passed by the Constituent Assembly of India on November 26, 1949, and came into effect on January 26, 1950. India celebrates January 26 each year as Republic Day. It is the longest written constitution of any independent nation in the world, containing 395 articles and 12 schedules, as well as numerous amendments, for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation.
The Constitution lays down the basic structure of government under which the people chose themselves to be governed. It establishes the main organs of government - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The Constitution not only defines the powers of each organ, but also demarcates their responsibilities. It regulates the relationship between the different organs and between the government and the people.
The Constitution is superior to all other laws of the country. Every law enacted by the government has to be in conformity with the Constitution. The Constitution lays down the national goals of India - Democracy, Socialism and National Integration. It also spells out the Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles and Duties of citizens. The Draftsmen of the Indian Constitution took inspiration from Constitutions all over the world and incorporated their attributes into the Indian Constitution. For example Part III on Fundamental Rights is partly derived from the American Constitution and Part 1V on Directive Principles of State Policy from the Irish Constitution.
A Constitution should be a dynamic document. It should be able to adapt itself to the changing needs of the society. Sometimes under the impact of new powerful social and economic forces, the pattern of government will require major changes. Keeping this factor in mind the Draftsmen of the Indian Constitution incorporated Article 368 in the Constitution which dealt with the procedure of amendment. Due to Article 368 the Indian Constitution can neither be called rigid nor flexible but in fact it is partly rigid and partly flexible. Articles of the Indian Constitution can be amended by a simple majority in the Parliament (Second Schedule, Article 100(3), 105, 11, 124, 135, 81, 137), or by special majority that is majority of the total membership of each house and by majority of not less than two thirds of the members of each house present and voting , or by Ratification by the State Legislatures after special majority (Article 73, 162, Chapter 1V of Part V, Chapter V of Part V1, Seventh Schedule, representation of the State in Parliament and provisions dealing with amendment of the Constitution).
Constituent power is the area in the history of Indian Constitutional Law which has lead to most serious disagreements between Parliament and Judiciary, the conflict involving Parliamentary Supremacy on one hand and on the other Judicial review of the Scope and extent of the power and the manner in which such power is to be exercised. Constituent power is termed as a power which is exercised by a representative body authorized by a Constitution to amend the Constitution. This amending power is one of the most desirable powers in a Constitution, if a Constitution as a fundamental document is to continue. John Burgess is of the opinion that the first and most important part is the organization of the State for the accomplishments of future changes in the Constitution, which is the amendment clause.
Classification of amendment procedures can if classified in two heads as rigid and flexible. Rigid. procedures means difficult to amend the constitution like that of U.S., Australia, Canada and Switzerland and flexible procedure means in which procedure to amend is easy, and can be done even by passing a normal legislation like that of United Kingdom. But in Indian constitution though the procedure is classified as Rigid but it has practically proved to a flexible one.