[GKmojo] Indian polity Notes

1. Framing of the Constitution:

a) The Constitution of India was framed by a Constituent Assembly which was set up
under the Cabinet mission plan (1946).

b) The Constituent Assembly took almost 3 years (2 years, 11 months, and 18 days) to
complete its historic task of drafting the Constitution for an Independent India.

2. Committees formed and headed by:

 Committee on the Rules of Procedure

 Steering Committee Dr. Rajendra Prasad
 Finance and Staff Committee
 Ad hoc Committee on the National Flag

 Drafting Committee
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

 Committee on the Functions of the

Constituent Assembly G.V. Mavalankar

3. Sources of our constitution:

The Indian Constitution is borrowed from almost all the major countries of the world but has its
own unique features too.

Major sources are:

1. Government of India Act of 1935 - Federal Scheme, Office of Governor, Judiciary, Public
Service Commission, Emergency provisions and administrative details.

2. British Constitution – Parliamentary System, Rule of law, Legislative Procedure, Single

Citizenship, Cabinet System, Prerogative Writs, Parliamentary Privileges and Bicameralism.

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3. US Constitution – Fundamental rights, independence of judiciary, judicial review,
impeachment of president, removal of Supreme Court and high court judges and post of vice
president.

4. Irish Constitution- Directive Principles of State Policy, nomination of members of Rajya

Sabha and method of election of president

5. Canadian Constitution- Federation with a strong centre, vesting of residuary power in the
centre, appointment of state Governor by the centre and advisory jurisdiction of Supreme Court.

6. Australian Constitution- Concurrent list, joint sitting of two houses of Parliament.

7. Constitution of Germany- Suspension of fundamental rights during emergency.

8. French Constitution- Republic and ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Preamble.

9. South African Constitution- Procedure for amendment of the constitution and election of
members of Rajya Sabha.

10. Constitution of former USSR: Procedure of five-year plan, fundamental duties, ideals of
justice in Preamble.

4. Fundamental rights:

Currently the Constitution provided 7 fundamental rights.

Originally the Constitution provided for seven fundamental rights:

1. Right to equality
2. Right to freedom
3. Right against exploitation
4. Cultural and educational rights
5. Right to property
6. Right to constitutional remedies
7. Right to Privacy

However, the ‘right to property‘was deleted from the list of fundamental rights by the 44th
Constitutional Amendment Act, 1978. It has been made a legal right under Article 300- A in
the Constitution. A new fundamental right has been added recently which is right to
privacy.

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5. Important Articles to Indian Constitution:

 Article 17 Abolition of Untouchability

 Article 21: Right to privacy
 Article 32 provides the right to Constitutional remedies which means that a person
has right to move to Supreme Court (and high courts also) for getting his
fundamental rights protected
 Article 370 Special provision of J&K
 Article 352 Proclamation of emergency (National Emergency)
 Article 356 State Emergency (President‘s Rule)
 Article 360 Financial Emergency

6. Important Amendments to Indian Constitution:

1) 17th Amendment (1956) – States Reorganization Act 1956 on the linguistic basis and
abolition of Class A, B, C, D states.
2) 14th Amendment (1962) - Pondicherry incorporated into Indian Union after transfer by
France.
3) 26th Amendment (1971) – Abolition of Privy Purse paid to the former ruler of states.
4) 31st Amendment Act (1973) - Increased the elective strength of the Lok Sabha from 525
to 545. Under the Act, the upper limit of representatives of the States goes up from 500 to
525 and that of the Union Territories decreases from 25 to 20.
5) 36th Amendment (1975) – Sikkim included as an Indian State
6) 42nd Amendment Act (1976) - Fundamental Duties Prescribed, It is known as “mini-
Constitution” or the “Constitution of Indira”. It is due to the Forty-second Amendment to the
Indian Constitution that India became a Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic.
Changes were made to almost every part of the Constitution which includes the Preamble
too. It was enacted during the period of internal emergency. It was passed by Parliament on
November 11, 1976 and received Presidential assent on December 18, 1976.
7) 44th Amendment Act (1978) - Right to Property deleted from the list of fundamental
rights.
8) 52nd Amendment (1985) - Defection to another party after election made illegal.
9) 55th Amendment Act (1987) - It grants Statehood to Arunachal Pradesh which
consequently became the 24th State of the Indian Union.
10) 56th Amendment Act (1987) - It confers Statehood on Goa and forms a new Union
Territory of Daman and Diu. Goa thus became the 25th State of the Indian Republic.
11) 61st Amendment (1989)- Voting age reduced from 21 to 18.
12) 73rd Amendment (1993) – Introduction of Panchayati Raj, the addition of Part IX to the
Constitution.
13) 74th Amendment (1993) - Introduction of Nagarpalikas and Municipalities.
14) 86th Amendment (2002) – Right to Education

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7. of India:

Ram Nath Kovind is now 14th President of India

Bullet Points facts about Presidents:

1) The President of India is the Head of the state of India and the Commander-in-chief of the
Indian Armed Forces. He is the 1st citizen of the country.

2) The President resides in an estate known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan, situated in Raisina Hill
in New Delhi.

3) The first and only female president of India was Smt Pratibha Patil (2007-2012).

4) The President is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the
parliament houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Vidhan Sabha, the
state legislative assemblies.
Remember here Vidhan Parishad ( Legislative council ) doesn't take part in Election of
president).

5) There have been 14 presidents of India since the introduction of the post in 1950.
Apart from these 14, three acting presidents have also been in office for short periods of time.

6) Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, is the only person to have held office for two
terms.

7) Two presidents, Zakhir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, have died in office.

8) Mr. Ram Nath Kovind was a lawyer by the profession and before becoming president, He
was the Governor of Bihar.

9) LIST OF PRESIDENTS OF INDIA

1. Dr Rajendra Prasad (1950-1962)
2. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962-1967)
3. Zakir Hussain (1967-1969)
4. Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1969-1974)
5. Fakruddin Ali Ahmed (1974-1977)
6. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977-1982)
7. Giani Zail Singh (1982-1987)
8. Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987-1992)
9. Shankar Dayal Sharma (1992-1997)
10. K R Narayanan (1997-2002)
11. APJ Abdul Kalam (2002-2007)
12. Pratibha Patil (2007-2012)

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13. Pranab Mukherjee (2012- 2017)
14. Ramnath Kovind (25 July 2017 onward)

8) Resignation

Submission of Resignations
Submits Resignation
S.No. Appointment
to
1. President Vice President
2. Vice President President
3. Prime Minister President
4. Judge of Supreme Court President
5. Governor President
6. Judge of High Court President
Deputy Speaker of
7. Speaker of Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
Deputy Speaker of Lok
8. Speaker of Lok Sabha
Sabha
Deputy Chairman of Council
9. Chairman
of States
Chairman of upper
Member of house of
10. house or the Speaker
Parliament
of Lower House.
Deputy Speaker of
11. Speaker of Assembly
Assembly
Deputy Speaker of
12. Speaker of Assembly
Assembly
Chairman of Legislative
13. Deputy Chairman
Council of States
Deputy Chairman of
14. Chairman
Legislative Council of States
A member of Public Service
Commission (Union
15. President
Commission or Joint
Commission)
A member of Public Service
16. Commission (State Governor of the State
Commission)

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9. Some important points to remember:

1) Total no. Of seats in lower house (Lok Sabha): 545; Total no. of seats in upper house (Rajya
Sabha): 250

2) 1st to hold the office

1st chief election commissioner of India Sukumar Sen

1st vice president of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

1ST Chief Justice of India HJ Kania

The first Home minister of India Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel

The first Education Minister Abdul Kalam Azad

The first Prime Minister of India who did not face the

Parliament Charan Singh

The first Muslim President of Indian Republic Dr. Zakhir Hussain

The first Prime Minister of India who resigned

without completing the full term Morarji Desai

The first President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad

The first Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru

The First Law Minister of India Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar

1st speaker of Lok Sabha GV Mavalankar

The first woman to become President of India Pratibha Patil

The first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

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The first woman foreign Minister of India Sushma Swaraj

The first woman Governor of a state in free India Mrs Sarojini Naidu

The first woman Minister in a Government Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

The first woman to become speaker of lok sabha Meira Kumar

The first woman Chief Minister of an Indian State Mrs Sucheta Kripalani

Mrs Leela Seth (Himachal

The first woman Chief Justice of High Court Pradesh High Court)

The first woman Judge in Supreme Court of India Kumari Justice M. Fathima Beevi

3) Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defence Minister of India, the 1st woman to hold the position
independently.
Sushma Swaraj is the 1st woman to become foreign minister of India

4) Supreme court judge retires at 65 of age while high court judge retires at 62 years of age.

5) Chief justice of India gives oath to President of India.

Chief justice of High court gives oath to Governor.

6) How many sessions in a year held in Lok Sabha: 3 [monsoon session, winter session and
budget session]

7) The state which has the highest no. Of Representatives in both the houses: UP

8) Which high court has the largest jurisdiction in term of number of state: Guwahati high Court.
Total high courts in our country are 24.

9) Minimum age of President and vice-president is 35 years.

10) Minimum age of PM: Complete 25 years of age if he is a member of the Lok Sabha or 30
years if he is a member of the Rajya Sabha.

11) NITI Aayog or the National Institution for Transforming India is a Government of
India policy think-tank established by the Narendra Modi government to replace the Planning
Commission.

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 Narendra Modi, Chairperson
 Amitabh Kant, CEO
 Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairperson

12) The first hour of a sitting of the House normally allotted for asking and answering of
questions: Question Hour.

13) A bill containing only provisions dealing with all or any of the matters specified in
sub‐clauses (a) to (g) of Clause (1) of Article 110 of the Constitution. Such a bill cannot be
introduced without the recommendation of the President and it also cannot be introduced in the
Rajya Sabha- Money Bill

14) Right to information act came into picture from 2005. Right to Information Act 2005 special
is its power and practicality to seek and get information from government authorities.

15) The Attorney General for India is the Indian government's chief legal advisor, and its primary
lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He is appointed by the President of India under Article
76(1) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President.
KK Venugopal is the current attorney general of india.

16) Constitutional Bodies and Non- Constitutional Bodies

Constitutional Bodies are formed by the Constitution which helps the Government to run
properly.
Some Important constitutional Bodies:
1.Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
2.Election Commission.
3. Finance Commission
4. CAG
5. National Commission for SC s / ST s
6. Attorney General

Non constitutional body which does not find its name in the constitution of India. Hence, it
cannot derive power from constitution of India. Statutory body can also be called as a non-
constitutional body
A statutory body is one that derives its existence and authority from a statute (i.e. law). Eg:
Wildlife Board constituted under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Non-statutory body would thus
be one that has no legislative backing. Eg: NITI Aayog. These non-statutory extra-constitutional
bodies are usually created through an executive order (i.e., the order of the govt, in layman's
terms).

17) Longest serving PM of India: Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru

18) Part of Indian constitution: President, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

19) Chairman of Rajya Sabha: Vice President

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20) 14th Finance commission: 2015-2020
Its chairman: Dr. Y V Reddy

21) 21st Law Commission of India: 2015-2018

Chairman: Justice Balbir Singh Chauhan
The LCI is a non-statutory and non-constitutional body constituted by the Union Government
from time to time....
Recommendations: 21st LCI will give its major recommendations on a review of the Indian
Penal Code (IPC), the criminal justice system and the bail law in order to ensure uniformity in
the procedure of granting the relief.

22) Important Time Limits in Indian Constitution

Maximum duration for which a member
of either House of Parliament may be
60 days
absent without permission, before his
seat is declared is vacant
Maximum period within which a person
who is arrested and detained in custody
24 hours
shall be produced before the nearest
magistrate
Maximum interval between two
Six months
sessions of Parliament/State Assembly
Six months + Six
Maximum life of Presidential Ordinance
weeks*
Maximum period within which an
election is to be held to fill a vacancy
Six months
created by the death, resignation or
removal, or otherwise of a President
Six months
Maximum duration for which
extendable upto a
President’s rule can be imposed in a
maximum of three
state
years
Time after which money bill passed by
Lok Sabha is deemed to have been
14 days
passed by Rajya Sabha when no action
is taken by it
Maximum period for which the term of a
Lok Sabha/State Legislature may be
1 year at a time
extended while a Proclamation of
Emergency is in operation
* Six months being the maximum interval between two sessions of the Parliament and six
weeks being the time allowed for the Parliament to approve/disapprove the ordinance after its
reassembly.

All the best by GKmojo

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