Indian Constitution, Polity and Judiciary

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Preliminary Examination, General Studies, under the heading Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations:

• Indian Constitution: Origin and Evolution, Features, Important provisions of the Constitution, Important Constitutional Amendments, Basic Structure, Matters related to the Federal Structure, etc.
• Constitutional Authorities: Powers, Functions and Responsibilities. Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial bodies.
• Local self-government institutions.
• Judiciary in India - Structure and functions, judicial review, Public Interest Litigation, Landmark Judgments, etc.

Topics in detail

The official lines cover both the text of the Constitution (Articles and Schedules) and how the institutions work. Learn Article numbers for the main provisions and the facts of the landmark cases.

Origin and evolution of the Constitution

• Constitutional history: Regulating Act 1773 to the Indian Independence Act 1947; Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935
• The Constituent Assembly: composition, committees, Objectives Resolution, adoption (26 November 1949) and commencement (26 January 1950)
• Sources of the Constitution (borrowed features)

Features and important provisions

• Preamble and its key words; whether it is part of the Constitution
• Union and its territory (Articles 1-4); citizenship (Articles 5-11) and the Citizenship Act, 1955
• Fundamental Rights (Articles 12-35), writs, reasonable restrictions
• Directive Principles of State Policy (Articles 36-51) and their relation with Fundamental Rights; Fundamental Duties (Article 51A)
• Union executive: President, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Attorney General
• Parliament: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, sessions, bills, money bills, budget procedure, committees, privileges
• State executive and legislature: Governor, Chief Minister, State Legislature (Gujarat has a unicameral legislature)
• Emergency provisions (Articles 352, 356, 360); special provisions for some states (Article 371, including 371(2) for Gujarat and Maharashtra)
• Scheduled and tribal areas (Fifth and Sixth Schedules); official language; the Schedules in outline

Amendments and the basic structure

• Amendment procedure (Article 368): simple, special and special with ratification by states
• Important amendments: 1st, 7th, 24th, 42nd, 44th, 52nd, 61st, 73rd, 74th, 86th, 101st (GST), 103rd, 106th
• Basic structure doctrine: Kesavananda Bharati (1973), Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain, Minerva Mills, S. R. Bommai

Federal structure

• Federal and unitary features; Union, State and Concurrent Lists (Seventh Schedule)
• Legislative, administrative and financial relations between the Union and the States; Finance Commission; GST Council
• Inter-State Council, zonal councils (Gujarat in the Western Zonal Council); inter-state water disputes
• Commissions on Centre-State relations: Sarkaria and Punchhi

Constitutional authorities

• Election Commission of India (Article 324) and State Election Commissions
• Union and State Public Service Commissions (Articles 315-323), including the GPSC
• Comptroller and Auditor General (Article 148); Attorney General and Advocate General
• Finance Commission (Article 280); National Commissions for SCs (338), STs (338A) and Backward Classes (338B)
• Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities (350B)

Statutory, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies

• NITI Aayog (executive body), National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commissions
• Central Vigilance Commission, Central Bureau of Investigation, Lokpal and Lokayuktas
• Central and State Information Commissions under the RTI Act, 2005
• National Commission for Women, National Commission for Minorities, NCPCR
• Regulators: RBI, SEBI, TRAI, IRDAI, Competition Commission of India, CERC and state electricity regulatory commissions
• Tribunals: National Green Tribunal, Central Administrative Tribunal, consumer commissions

Local self-government institutions

• Balwantrai Mehta, Ashok Mehta and other committees on Panchayati Raj
• 73rd Amendment: Part IX, gram sabha, three tiers, reservation, State Election Commission, State Finance Commission, Eleventh Schedule
• 74th Amendment: Part IXA, municipal corporations, municipalities, nagar panchayats; ward committees; metropolitan and district planning committees; Twelfth Schedule
• PESA Act 1996 for Fifth Schedule areas
• Panchayati Raj and urban bodies in Gujarat (see the Gujarat polity page)

Judiciary in India

• Supreme Court: composition, appointment (collegium), original, appellate, advisory and writ jurisdiction
• High Courts (the Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad, from 1 May 1960); subordinate courts; Lok Adalats and legal services authorities
• Judicial review; judicial activism and restraint
• Public Interest Litigation: origin, scope and limits
• Landmark judgments: Golaknath, Kesavananda Bharati, Maneka Gandhi, Minerva Mills, Indra Sawhney, Vishaka, S. R. Bommai, K. S. Puttaswamy (privacy)

Overlaps

Mains General Studies-II (A) Indian Polity and Constitution covers almost the same list for descriptive answers.