The Constitution of India Test - 7

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.

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.

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 Right against Exploitation enshrined in Article 23 & 24 of the Indian Constitution guarantees dignity of the individual. It also prohibits the exploitation or misuse of service by force or inducement in the following ways:

It prohibits human trafficking i.e. it criminalizes buying and selling of human beings like a commodity. It also prohibits use of women or girls for immoral purposes. It prohibits slavery, beggar, bonded labour or other forms of forced labour. The government cannot discriminate on the basis of religion, race, color, etc. It prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and other hazardous activities.

Article 22 makes the minimum procedural requirements which must be included in any law enacted by legislature in accordance of which a person is deprived of his/her personal liberty. Articles 22(1) and 22(2) are also called rights of an arrested person.

Rights of an arrested person [Articles 22(1) and 22(2)] are as follows:

1. A person cannot be arrested and detained without being informed why he/she is being arrested.
2. A person who is arrested cannot be denied to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice. This means that the arrested person has right to hire a legal practitioner to defend himself/herself.
3. Every person who has been arrested would be produced before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours.