GS Paper: GS2-01.Indian Constitution-Historical underpinnings & evolution; Features, amendments, significant provisions, basic structure of Constitution

PM highlighted the contribution of women in the Constituent Assembly which drafted the Constitution was hardly discussed and efforts should be made to educate future generations about their work.

These are the 15 invisible architects of the Indian republic cited by the PM-

Note: This newscard has some invincible set of facts that no one can remember in one go. However, we advise you to take some notes and have it on your desk. Be it sticky notes or something. Revise them for some days.

(1) Ammu Swaminathan

• She was born into an upper-caste Nair family in the Palghat district of Kerala.
• She was a social worker and politician who along with Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins, Malathi Patwardhan, Mrs. Dadabhoy, and Mrs. Ambujammal, formed the Women’s India Association in 1917 in Madras.
• One of the first associations to demand adult franchise and constitutional rights for women.
• She strongly opposed discriminatory caste practices although, she belonged to an upper-caste and strongly advocated equal status, adult franchise, and the removal of untouchability.
• Ammu became a part of the Constituent Assembly in 1946 from the Madras constituency.
• She felt that the Constitution was too long and that it had gone into unnecessary detail and wanted a constitution that could fit easily into a pocket or purse.

(2) Annie Mascarene

• Annie Mascarene was born into a Latin Catholic family belonging to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
• She was one of the first women to join the Travancore State Congress and became the first woman to be part of the Travancore State Congress Working Committee.
• She was one of the leaders of the movements for independence and integration with the Indian nation in the Travancore State.
• She was elected to the First Lok Sabha in the Indian general election, 1951.
• She was the first woman MP from Kerala and one of only ten elected to Parliament in the elections.
• Before her election to Parliament, she had served briefly as Minister in Charge of Health and Power during 1949-1950.

(3) Begum Aizaz Rasul

• She was born into the princely family of Malerkotla, Punjab.
• She was the only Muslim woman in the Constituent Assembly.
• She, together with her husband joined the Muslim League after the enactment of the GOI Act 1935.
• In 1950, after the dissolution of the Muslim League in India, she joined Congress.
• She was elected to the Constituent Assembly as a member of the Muslim League representing the United Provinces.
• Although she was not a part of any committee in the Assembly, she advocated for National language, reservation and property rights, and minority rights.
• She was against making ‘Sanskritised Hindi’ the National language, as only very few understood it and instead advocated for Hindustani.

(4) Dakshayani Velayudhan

• She was born into an agrestic slave caste, Pulayas, on a small island of Bolgatty on the coast of Cochin.
• She was the only Dalit women member of the Constituent Assembly and also the youngest at 34 years.
• She was the first Dalit woman to graduate in India, and was the only female student pursuing a course in the sciences.
• She was inspired into politics through her family’s fight against discriminatory caste practices.
• She was the first generation Kerala woman to be able to cover their upper-body.
• She was nominated to the Assembly in 1945 from Madras.
• In the Assembly, she advocated on issues of untouchability, forced labour, reservations, and against separate electorates for Dalits.
• She believed that the best way to address untouchability was through sustained state propaganda and not through punishment.
• In 1977 she set up a women’s rights organization Mahila Jagriti Parishad in Delhi.

(5) Durgabai Deshmukh

• Durgabai, from the ripe age of twelve, was a part of the Indian freedom movement.
• She quit school to protest the imposition of English as a medium of education, part of the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• She volunteered at a conference held by the Indian National Congress in Kakinada at the age of 14.
• She participated in the Salt Satyagraha from Madras in May of 1930.
• While she was in prison, she studied English and completed her master’s degree from Andhra University.
• She then studied law at Madras University and practiced at the bar for a few years.
• She established Andhra Mahila Sabha to coach young Telugu girls in Madras for their Matriculation examination conducted by the Banaras Hindu University in 1936.
• She was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Madras and was part of the Committee on Rules and Procedure and the Steering Committee.
• She also advocated for judicial-independence and human trafficking.
• She also felt that Hindustani should be adopted as a national language instead of Sanskritised Hindi but, she later argued against adopting Hindi as the national language.

(6) Hansa Jivraj Mehta

• She was a writer, social reformer, social activist, and educator.
• In 1937, she contested in the Bombay Legislative Council elections from the general category; she not only won but remained on the council till 1949.
• She became President of the All India Women’s Conference in 1946.
• During the presidency, she drafted the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights and Duties, which called for gender equality and civil rights for women.
• She is 1946 also served as a member of the UN sub-committee on the status of women.
• She along with Eleanor Roosevelt, vice-chaired the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Committee.
• She was part of the Advisory Committee, Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights, Provincial Constitution Committee.
• She strongly advocated for a uniform civil code and believed that purdah was an evil practice. She also rejected quotas, reserved seats, and separate electorates for women.

(7) Kamla Chaudhary

• She was a feminist, fictional writer, and political activist.
• Her political career began in 1930 when she joined the Indian National Congress and was an active participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• At the 54th session of the All India Congress Committee, she was the vice-president.
• She was elected to the Constituent Assembly.

(8) Leela Roy

• She was a great social reformer, a staunch feminist and a social and political activist, and a close associate of Subash Chandra Bose.
• In 1923 she received her M.A from Dhaka University and was the first woman to obtain it from the University.
• She was an advocate for women’s education and established Dipali Sangh, an association for women, in 1923.
• She founded a school named Dipali School and twelve other free primary schools with the help of the Dipali Sangha.
• Subsequently, in 1928, she established two other schools known as Nari Shiksa Mandir (Temple of Women’s Education) and Shiksa Bhaban (House of Education).
• Another important contribution was made b her to Muslim women’s education by setting up one of her schools as Qamrunnessa Girl’s School in Dhaka.
• She was the only woman to be elected from Bengal to the Constituent Assembly on 9th December 1946.
• However, she resigned from her post a few months later to protest against the partition of India.

(9) Malati Choudhury

• She hailed from East Bengal (now Bangladesh).
• At the age of 16, in 1929, she was sent to Santiniketan where she got admitted to Viswa-Bharati.
• Along with her husband, during the Salt Satyagrah joined the Indian National Congress.
• In 1933, she formed Utkal Congress Samajvadi Karmi Sangh along with, her husband and later came to be known as the Orissa Provincial Branch of the All India Congress Socialist Party.
• She joined Gandhiji in his famous padayatra in Orissa in 1934.
• For the upliftment of vulnerable communities in Odisha, she set-up several organizations such as the Bajiraut Chhatravas.

(10) Purnima Banerjee

• She was a part of the individual Satyagraha and Quit India movement.
• She was a member of the Congress Socialist Party and the Indian National Congress.
• She held the post as the Secretary of the Allahabad City Congress Committee, working towards creating rural engagement.
• She was appointed to the Constituent Assembly from United Provinces.
• She argued that the preventative detention clause in Draft Article 15A (Article 22 of the Constitution of India) must prescribe time limits beyond which a person cannot be detained.
• During the discussion of the Preamble, she expressly stated that ‘sovereignty’ is derived from the people of India.
• During the discussion around the qualifications of Rajya Sabha members, Banerjee believed that the age limit should be reduced from 35 to 30 years.

(11) Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

• Inspired by Gandhi’s fight for Independence, she gave up her Sherborne and Oxford education to be his Secretary for 16 years.
• In 1927 she along with Margaret cousins co-founded the All-India Women’s Conference.
• She held the position of Secretary in 1930 and President in 1933.
• She played a vital part in India’s establishment of constitutional equality of genders guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, and 16.
• She was also played a pivotal part in the inclusion of the Uniform Civil Code as part of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
• She was the first Health Minister of independent India and held office for ten years.
• She was the first female and first Asian President of the world health Assembly.

(12) Renuka Ray

• Renuka Rai is a celebrated women’s rights and inheritance rights in parent a property activist.
• She, like Kaur, was inspired by Gandhi’s call for the independence struggle, joined Gandhi’s Ashram accompanying him in protests.
• In 1934 while working as a secretary of the AIWC, she authored ‘legal disability is Women in India; A Plea for A Commission of Inquiry’.
• She worked for the prevention of women trafficking and the improvement of conditions of female labourers.
• Ray contributed to numerous women’s rights issues, minority rights, and bicameral legislature provisions. She fought for Uniform Personal Law Code.
• In 1949 represented India in the UN General assembly.

(13) Sarojini Naidu

• The first woman president of the Indian National Congress was popularly known as the Nightingale of India.
• When in England, she had gained some experience in suffragist campaigns and was drawn to India’s Congress movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-cooperation Movement.
• Besides being a suffragette, she was also a women rights activist, and she advocated for reforms to improve the conditions of widows in the Indian National Social Conference in Madras, 1908.
• In 1917 she headed the All-India Women’s Deputation and championed women’s suffrage before E. S. Montagu (Secretary of State for India).
• In the same year, she together with Annie Besant, set up the Women’s India Association.
• In 1931 she accompanied Gandhi to London for the inconclusive second session of the Round Table Conference.
• She was appointed to the Constituent Assembly from Bihar as part of the ad-hoc committee on the national flag.

(14) Sucheta Kriplani

• The first elected female chief minister of an Indian state was born in Ambala.
• A graduate from Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University, taught Constitutional History at Banaras Hindu University until 1939.
• She became a member of the Congress Party in 1938, served as the Secretary to the Foreign Department and Women’s Section for a year and a half.
• Under her leadership, the women’s wing of the Congress Party was established in 1940.
• She held an active role in India’s struggle for independence during the 1940s and was remembered especially for her role in the 1942 Quit India Movement for which she was arrested in 1944 and detained for a year.
• She was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces in 1946 as a member of the Flag Presentation Committee.
• This committee presented the first Indian flag before the Constituent Assembly.
• Kriplani served as a Secretary to the Relief and Rehabilitation Committee established by the Congress Party, playing a pivotal role in rehabilitating the Bengali refugees during the partition.
• She had a colourful political career. She was also a part of various delegations to international organizations and countries.

(15) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

• Born, Swarup Kumari Nehru was a diplomat and politician. She changed her name after her marriage in 1921.
• As an enthusiastic participant of the independence struggle, she was imprisoned on three different occasions.
• After the Indian Independence, she became an eminent diplomat representing India in the United Nations between 1946- 48 and 1952-53.
• She was an Ambassador to Moscow, Mexico, and Washington and later to England and Ireland concurrently.
• She is the first woman to become President of the UN General Assembly.
• She was appointed as the governor of Maharashtra after her return to India.

 

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The Union Government has put on hold a proposal to change the procedure for scheduling new communities as Scheduled Tribes, which has been in the pipeline for more than eight years.

Why in news?

• The proposal to change the procedure was based on the recommendations of a government task force constituted in February 2014, headed by then-Tribal Affairs Secretary Hrusikesh Panda.
• It called the existing procedure:

1. Cumbersome and time-consuming
2. Defeats the Constitutional agenda for affirmative action and inclusion

Who are the Scheduled Tribes?

• The term ‘Scheduled Tribes’ first appeared in the Constitution of India.
• Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”.
• Article 342 prescribes procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.

• Among the tribal groups, several have adapted to modern life but there are tribal groups who are more vulnerable.
• The Dhebar Commission (1973) created a separate category “Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs)” which was renamed in 2006 as “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)”.

How are STs notified?

• As per the current procedure, each proposal for the scheduling of a new community as ST has to originate from the relevant State Government.
• It is then sent to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which sends it to the Office of the Registrar General of India (RGI).
• Once approved by the Office of the RGI, it is sent to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), and only after its approval is it sent to the Cabinet.

Status of STs in India

• The Census 2011 has revealed that there are said to be 705 ethnic groups notified as Scheduled Tribes (STs).
• Over 10 crore Indians are notified as STs, of which 1.04 crore live in urban areas.
• The STs constitute 8.6% of the population and 11.3% of the rural population.

Issues with the procedure of ST notification

The Panda committee had explained that there were multiple obstacles unnecessarily preventing at least 40 communities from being listed as ST.

1. Exclusion over name: Several tribes pronounced or spelt their community’s name in different ways; some communities were split when new States were created, leaving them as ST in one State and not in the other;
2. Migration led exclusion: Some tribespeople were forcefully taken as indentured labour to other States where they were left out of the ST list.
3. No ethnographic study: The modalities not only lacked sufficient anthropologists and sociologists to comment on proposals for exclusion or inclusion.

Recommendations to change the procedure

The Panda committee recommends-

• Once a proposal is received from a State Government, it should be circulated simultaneously to the NCST.
• The Office of the RGI and the Anthropological Survey of India, each of which would have six months to give their opinions.
• A special Committee on scheduling would then consider the proposal and the opinions of the above-mentioned authorities and make a final recommendation within one month.
• The Committee would consist of the Tribal Affairs Secretary, and representatives of the NCST, Office of the RGI, Anthropological Survey of India, State Government and the concerned State tribal research institute.

 

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Former Supreme Court Judge Rohinton Fali Nariman has said civil suits against hate speech leading to the award of punitive damages should be taken up by courts.

What did the ex-Judge say?

• He described the Fundamental Duty of fraternity (Article 51A(5)) as the only Constitutional method of assuring the dignity of every citizen and the unity and integrity of the nation.
• The cardinal principle of fraternity prescribed that every citizen honoured the other citizen in the spirit of brotherhood, transcending religious, sectarian, and other tendencies.
• He opined that civil suits like defamation being dealt with fines would be more efficient in curbing hate speeches against individuals.

Article 51A(5): Promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.

What is ‘Hate Speech?

• There is no specific legal definition of ‘hate speech’.
• The Law Commission of India, in its 267th Report, says: “Hate speech generally is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like …
• Thus, hate speech is any word written or spoken, signs, visible representations within the hearing or sight of a person with the intention to cause fear or alarm, or incitement to violence.”
• In general, hate speech is considered a limitation on free speech that seeks to prevent or bar speech that exposes a person or a group or section of society to hate, violence, ridicule or indignity.

How is it treated in Indian law?

• Provisions in law criminalize speeches, writings, actions, signs and representations that foment violence and spread disharmony between communities and groups and these are understood to refer to ‘hate speech’.
• Sections 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code are generally taken to be the main penal provisions that deal with inflammatory speeches and expressions that seek to punish ‘hate speech’.

[I] Section 153A:

• Promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony’, is an offence punishable with three years’ imprisonment.

[II] Section 505:

• 505(1): Statements conducing to public mischief– The statement, publication, report or rumour that is penalized under Section 505(1) should be one that promotes mutiny by the armed forces, or causes such fear or alarm that people are induced to commit an offence against the state or public tranquillity. This attracts a jail term of up to three years.
• 505(2): It is an offence to make statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.
• 505(3): Same offence will attract up to a five-year jail term if it takes place in a place of worship, or in any assembly engaged in religious worship or religious ceremonies.

Why curb hate speeches?

• Creates social divide: Individuals believe in stereotypes that are ingrained in their minds and these stereotypes lead them to believe that a class or group of persons are inferior to them and as such cannot have the same rights as them.
• Threat to peaceful co-existence: The stubbornness to stick to a particular ideology without caring for the right to co-exist peacefully adds further fuel to the fire of hate speech.

Issues in regulating hate speech

• Powers to State: Almost every regulation of speech, no matter how well-intentioned, increases the power of the state.
• Hate speeches are Political: The issue is fundamentally political and we should not pretend that fine legal distinctions will solve the issue.
• Legal complications: An over-reliance on legal instruments to solve fundamental social and political problems often backfires.

Way forward

• Subjects like hate speeches become a complex issue to deal with, in a country like India which is very diverse, as it was very difficult to differentiate between free and hate speech.
• There are many factors that should be considered while restraining speeches like strong opinions, offensive comments towards certain communities, the effect on values like dignity, liberty and equality.
• We all have to work together and communicate efficiently for our country to be a healthy place to live in.

 

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The Jharkhand assembly on Friday cleared two bills, one fixing land records of 1932 as the basis for a domicile in the state and another to increase reservation in state government jobs across categories to 77%

What is the news?

• Though both these bills were cleared unanimously, they would come into effect only after the Centre includes them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
• A law in the Ninth Schedule is shielded from judicial review.

Why the need to include in Ninth Schedule?

• The 77 per cent reservation breaches the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court in the landmark 1992 Indra Sawhney v Union of India verdict.
• However, placing legislation in the Ninth Schedule shields it from judicial scrutiny.

What is the Ninth Schedule?

• The Ninth Schedule contains a list of central and state laws which cannot be challenged in courts.
• Most of the laws protected under the Schedule concern agriculture/land issues.
• The Schedule became a part of the Constitution in 1951, when the document was amended for the first time.
• It was created by the new Article 31B, which along with 31A was brought in by the government to protect laws related to agrarian reform and for abolishing the Zamindari system.
• While A. 31A extends protection to ‘classes’ of laws, A. 31B shields specific laws or enactments.

How many laws are there in ninth schedule?

• Currently, 284 such laws are shielded from judicial review.
• The First Amendment added 13 laws to the Schedule. Subsequent amendments in 1955, 1964, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1984, 1990, 1994, and 1999 have taken the number of protected laws to 284.

Previous instances — Tamil Nadu’s case

• A Tamil Nadu Law of 1993, reserves 69 per cent of the seats in colleges and jobs in the state government.
• When it ran into legal obstacles in the 1990s after the SC verdict, the then CM led a delegation to New Delhi to meet the then PM PV Narasimha Rao.
• The reservation provision was then included in the Ninth Schedule.

Nature of exemption from Judicial Review

• While the Ninth Schedule provides the law with a “safe harbour” from judicial review, the protection is not blanket.
• The Tamil Nadu law was challenged in 2007 in the I R Coelho v State of Tamil Nadu
• The Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous nine-judge verdict that while laws placed under Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged on the grounds of violation of fundamental rights.
• They can be challenged on the ground of violating the basic structure of the Constitution, said the apex court.

Verdict of the IR Coelho Case

• The IR Coelho verdict said, “A law that abrogates or abridges rights guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution may violate the basic structure doctrine or it may not.
• If former is the consequence of law, whether by amendment of any Article of Part III or by an insertion in the Ninth Schedule, such law will have to be invalidated in exercise of judicial review power of the Court.”

 

What is the 1973 deadline about?

• The court clarified that the laws cannot escape the “basic structure” test if inserted into the Ninth Schedule after 1973.
• As it was in 1973 that the basic structure test was evolved in the Kesavananda Bharati case as the ultimate test to examine the constitutional validity of laws.

 

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