India went through a lot of struggle for Independence. Many nationalists spent their blood, sweat and tears in saving our country and therefore, our Indian Constitution is the lengthiest of all and it includes their loyalties and values which the British rulers had snatched from us. Adding the fundamental rights, such as the right to freedom, right to equality, cultural, educational rights were an attempt to make sure that the people of India become free in the true sense and the spirit of democracy was withheld.
How was the constitution prepared?
The constitution was a handwritten document, and not typed and printed, with as much as 48 articles, 12 schedules, and 94 amendments, A total of 283 members of the constituent assembly signed the constitution, which came into being on 26th January 1950, The Indian constitution is the longest in the world, It took around 2 years, 11 months and 17 days for the assembly to finish writing the entire constitution. Since there was so much of the time spent in making the constitution by working so hard for it we all should respect and follow the Indian Constitution.
Deepak Misra the former Chief Justice of India said, “Constitutional sovereignty matters. That is primary. Everybody, including the parliamentarians and citizens, must adhere to and follow the conceptual essence of constitutional morality and that is why we are here," said Misra at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Important amendments made to the Constitution
- First Amendment Act in 1951- Sanctioned the state to make the development of socially and economically backward classes which helped in removing most of the backward narrow-minded thinking and helped the backward classes get employment and education opportunities.
- The Constitution (61st Amendment) Act, 1989- It lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and increased the seats for voting which gives us a better view of more votes on the right political party to be appointed.
Further amendments such as the Constitution (80th Amendment) Act, 2000- dealing with an alternative scheme for sharing taxes between the Union and the States; the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002- providing Right to Education until the age of fourteen and early childhood care until the age of six; the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992- to ensure direct election to all seats in Panchayats, to reserve seats for SCs and STs in proportion to their population, and for reservation of not less than one third of the seats in Panchayats for women have been extremely helpful to all of us Indians.
Why do we require to amend the constitution?
The Indian Constitution is very extensive and as said before, is the lengthiest constitution of all. It is not wrong to think that if the Indian constitution itself is so confusing to understand, then how much time will it take to actually put in place all the amendments to the content. Article 368 allows the removal or addition to the constitution, as and when necessary, and the amount of time it takes to reframe the Indian Constitution each time is a proof of the complexity of the Indian constitution just talked about. An amendment to simplify it while preserving the fundamental rights and values that the constitution stands for might be a good way of moving forward.
What changes can be made?
Our Preamble says, ‘We the people of India’, focusing on how democratic our country is. It is not really the true state of our Indian Constitution, as now, the real power lies in the hands of the politicians who decide the board of election, as their winning trophy for their speeches that they shower on us before the elections. A simple amendment could start by checking and rechecking the voting system of the elections to the parties making it very stringent in giving tickets to the ones who already have a criminal record, not allowing them to contest elections at any cost. These gangsters go up for elections to clear their name from their scandals before they reach the judiciary.
Political Amendments
The above problem can be solved by making use of the fundamental right to education, as it does not only apply to us but to all the citizens of India. Not excluding the judges, as, According to Article 348 of the Constitution of India read with Order VIII of the Rules. The Supreme Court of India Handbook on Practice and Procedure and Office Procedure, 2017, also says: "the language to be used in the Court and all proceedings in the Court shall be in English". So if the constitution demands the judges as well to speak in English, why should the politicians be spared? A politician should be people with high education because many leadership attributes are gained through education. Leaders with no education cannot cope up with the change hence it hinders country development.
Amendments for the judiciary
We could look upon the judiciary system being impactful as there are so many cases pending each year although our judicial system is supposed to look up for each and every case of justice and rights. Ensuring that our judiciary system is working with a strong motive of fulfilling the countries constitutional rights could be one of the greatest achievements of all the amendments made by the Indian constitution as fewer the cases of crimes and corruption the lesser the chances of Indian constitution going down.
The present situation is totally opposite highlighting the need for an urgent amendment. “Chief Justice Dipak Misra sounded the alarm on rising pendency at a time when the situation is almost getting out of hand with the backlog touching 3.3 crore cases. While 2.84 crore cases are pending in the subordinate courts, the backlog clogging the High Courts and Supreme Court (SC) is 43 lakh and 57,987 cases, respectively”. To look upon the situation of all the court cases with a keen eye could be one big challenge for India’s constitution as many of the higher authoritative people tend to give many favours, due to which our judiciary system lacks in exercising their duties which further increases the number of pending cases.
Some of the amendments that can be beneficial are:
- An amendment of the political party members having advanced education and notable contribution towards the betterment of India.
- Applying the Indian constitutional rights to our amendments making it compulsory for the political parties to be adequately educated to eradicate the thoughts of religious discrimination, and making the rights to equality, religious freedom and no social discrimination true in the real sense.
Conclusion
There are many more small issues as well as big ones running in our Indian constitution and through our constitution is flexible we do need to address these issues and bring about certain amendments in it.
We would only wish for our countries betterment and prosperity with these changes made in our Indian Constitution. Although individual opinions are respected in the Indian constitution, India cannot take in everyone’s wishes and demands but can surely help us develop through the amendments accepted every time they are put forward keeping the nations integrity, democracy, and secularism in mind. We don’t expect a quick change but a good and effective change from our Indian Constitution.
- Mihika
Want to get published on EMN and join the community? Here is an opportunity to join the Board of Young Leaders Program by Eat My News. Click here to know more: bit.ly/boardofyoungleaders
Social