The Constitution of India Test - 1

Jammu and Kashmir was the only Indian state which had its own constitution. The constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, which was adopted on 17^th November, 1956 ,and came into effect on 26^th January, 1957, was a legal document which established the framework of government at state level (in the state of Jammu and Kashmir).

However, article 370, which provided special rights to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped in 2019. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is now a union territory, and it has to abide by the Indian Constitution.

Before the Independence from the Britishers, in the year 1929, during the Lahore session in December, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as the President and Congress finally voted for Purna Swaraj (complete independence) and it was proposed that the last Sunday of January 1930 would be celebrated as Independence Day which incidentally fell on 26^th.

This was the reason that even though the Constitution had passed on November 26, 1949, it came into force from January 26, 1950, and replaced the 1935 Government of India Act.

Then, after the Independence day (August 15,1947), our constitutional assembly had been already formed in 1946 and the Constitution was ready by November 26, 1949 after a period of 2 years 11 months and 18 days. But in honour of our Purna Swaraj (already celebrated on January 26, 1930), our leaders decided to wait for 2 more months and enforced it on January 26, 1950.

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework demarcating fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any country on earth. B. R. Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee, is widely considered to be its chief architect.

Article 32, that is, Right to Constitutional Remedies, was described as the heart and soul of the Indian Constitution by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. It is described as aforesaid, because the fundamental rights have no significance without availability of any remedy to enforce them.

Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar (27 November, 1888 - 27 February, 1956), popularly known as Dadasaheb, was an independence activist and the President (from 1946 to 1947) of the Central Legislative Assembly, then Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of India and later, the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India.

The Constitution establishes a dual polity, consisting of the Union at the Centre and the states at the Periphery. Each is endowed with sovereign powers to be exercised in the field assigned to it by the Constitution. The Union government deals with the matters of national importance, like defence, foreign affairs, currency and communication, and so on.

It specifies the structure, organisation, powers and functions of both the Central and state governments, and prescribes the limits within which they must operate. Thus, it avoids the misunderstandings and disagreements between the two.

The Constitution lays down certain Directive Principles of State Policy, which, though not justiciable, are 'fundamental in governance of the country', and it is the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.