The constitution is a fundamental document which defines the position powers and working of namely three organs of a state namely, executive, legislature and judiciary. Indian constitution came into force on 26th January 1950 under the chairmanship of Dr B R Ambedkar. It has been adopted from the government of India Act, 1935. Apart from these most of the provisions has been adopted from various other constitutions. Indian constitution is the most lengthy and detailed constitutional document the world has so far produced. Now there is a need to look into some of the important features of the Indian constitution.
The first feature of Indian constitution is that it a written constitution. Our constitution is a written document. Indian constitution is both rigid and flexible. In the concept of rigidity the basic structure of the Indian constitution cannot be changed or stick out. If the basic structure is strike out the entire constitution itself will collapse. On the other hand Indian constitution is flexible according to Article 368 which provides the parliament the power to amend the constitution according to the socio economic and political situations.
India has a parliamentary form of governance. It means here, in a parliamentary form of governance, the legislature is divided into upper house and lower house and in order to pass a bill the consent of both the house is necessary in order to avoid the dictatorship of the ruling party. One of the important feature is that, India has a federal system. In a federal system there are two types of government. That is central government and state government. Here the point that has to be noted is that both these government are independent in their own spheres.
Independent judiciary is another important feature. Here in India judiciary is free from the influence of legislature and executive. The judges enjoy security and service and high salaries in order to avoid external influence from the executive and other political parties. The judiciary has complete power to interfere in the matters of executive and legislature. The judiciary enjoys original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction.
Adult suffrage is another feature of Indian constitution. In Adult suffrage in order to enjoy the legal privilege a person has to attain 18 years of age upon various rights such as right to vote. Fundamental rights are another feature of our Indian constitution. Fundamental rights are the basic individual rights guaranteed by our constitution which protects each individual from the over interference of state laws. Fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution are not absolute. They are subjected to reasonable restrictions by the legislature. The Preamble is the main objective which the legislature is intended to achieve. It is a key to the intention of the makers of the act. The preamble of the Indian constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic and republic. Another important feature that has to be looked into is Directive principles of state policy. Directive principles of state policy sets out aims and objectives to be applied by the state in the governance of a country. Therefore we have analyzed in detail regarding the Indian constitution and its important features.
