Indian Constitution: History, Features, Amendments and Basic Structure · UPSC Civil Services

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper III: General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations):

Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Company rule: Regulating Act, 1773; Pitt’s India Act, 1784; Charter Acts of 1813, 1833 and 1853
Crown rule: Government of India Act, 1858; Indian Councils Acts of 1861, 1892 and 1909 (separate electorates for Muslims)
Government of India Act, 1919: dyarchy in the provinces, a bicameral central legislature, direct elections on a limited franchise
Government of India Act, 1935: provincial autonomy, a proposed All-India Federation, three lists of subjects, the Federal Court; its imprint on the present Constitution
Demands for a constituent assembly; the Cabinet Mission Plan, 1946; the Indian Independence Act, 1947

Constituent Assembly: composition, indirect election by provincial assemblies, representation of princely states
First sitting on 9 December 1946; Objectives Resolution moved on 13 December 1946 and adopted on 22 January 1947
Major committees, including the Drafting Committee chaired by Dr B. R. Ambedkar
Adoption on 26 November 1949 and commencement on 26 January 1950; provisions that came into force at once
Criticisms of the Assembly (not directly elected, dominated by one party, a lawyers’ body) and responses to them

Sources borrowed from the Government of India Act, 1935 and from the constitutions of Britain, the USA, Ireland, Canada, Australia and others, and how they were adapted
Lengthy written Constitution; blend of rigidity and flexibility
Federal system with a unitary bias; parliamentary form of government
Synthesis of parliamentary sovereignty and judicial supremacy; integrated and independent judiciary
Universal adult franchise, single citizenship, secular State, independent bodies, emergency provisions
Three-tier government after the 73rd and 74th Amendments

Ideals: sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic; justice, liberty, equality, fraternity
Words added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976 (socialist, secular, integrity)
Whether the Preamble is part of the Constitution: Berubari Union (1960) and Kesavananda Bharati (1973)

Union and its territory (Articles 1 to 4): formation of new states and alteration of boundaries
Citizenship (Articles 5 to 11) and the Citizenship Act, 1955; Overseas Citizenship of India
Fundamental Rights (Part III): right to equality, freedom, against exploitation, freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights, constitutional remedies; reasonable restrictions
Writs under Articles 32 and 226: habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, quo warranto
Expansion of Article 21 by the courts: Maneka Gandhi (1978), right to privacy in K. S. Puttaswamy (2017), Article 21A on education
Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV): socialist, Gandhian and liberal-intellectual principles; their relationship with Fundamental Rights (Champakam Dorairajan, Golak Nath, Minerva Mills)
Fundamental Duties (Article 51A): added by the 42nd Amendment, the eleventh duty by the 86th Amendment, 2002
Emergency provisions (Articles 352, 356 and 360) and the safeguards added by the 44th Amendment, 1978
Special provisions for certain states (Article 371 to 371J); Fifth and Sixth Schedules; the Eighth Schedule languages; official language provisions (Part XVII)
Article 370 and its being made inoperative in 2019
Overview of the Parts and the twelve Schedules

Article 368: procedure; simple majority, special majority, and special majority with ratification by half of the states
First Amendment, 1951 (Ninth Schedule, restrictions on free speech) and the Seventh Amendment, 1956 (reorganisation of states)
42nd (1976) and 44th (1978) Amendments: what was changed and what was reversed; right to property moved to Article 300A
52nd Amendment, 1985 (Tenth Schedule, anti-defection) and the 91st Amendment, 2003
61st (voting age lowered to 18), 73rd and 74th (local government), 86th (right to education) Amendments
101st (GST, 2016), 102nd (National Commission for Backward Classes, 2018), 103rd (economically weaker sections, 2019), 105th (states’ power to identify backward classes, 2021) and 106th (reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, 2023) Amendments

From Shankari Prasad (1951), Sajjan Singh (1965) and Golak Nath (1967) to Kesavananda Bharati (1973)
Later applications: Indira Nehru Gandhi v Raj Narain (1975), Minerva Mills (1980), Waman Rao (1981), S. R. Bommai (1994), I. R. Coelho (2007), the NJAC case (2015)
Elements recognised by the courts: supremacy of the Constitution, judicial review, rule of law, federalism, secularism, separation of powers, free and fair elections, parliamentary democracy, limited amending power
Debate: judicial check on constituent power versus parliamentary supremacy

Prelims General Studies Paper I: “Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.”
General Studies I: the Freedom Struggle and post-independence consolidation give the historical background of the Constitution.