Preamble, Union and Its Territory, Citizenship (Indian Polity)

Preamble, Union and Its Territory, Citizenship (Indian Polity)

 

THE PREAMBLE

1. The term ‘preamble’ refers to the preface or a brief introduction of the Constitution. It is kind of a summary or essence of the Constitution.
2. The first constitution which begins with, a preamble is the American constitution.
3. N.A Palkiwala called the preamble  ‘the identity card of the constitution’.
4. The Preamble is basically based on the ‘Objectives Resolution’ moved by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in the Constituent Assembly in 1946.
5. The Preamble of the constitution has been amended only once so far, that is by the "42^nd Amendment Act of 1976". SOCIALIST, SECULAR, and INTEGRITY these three words were added by this amendment act.
6. The Preamble reveals four ingredients or components:

• Nature of Indian State: The preamble declares India as a sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic and republican polity.
• Objectives of the Constitution: The objective is to provide justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to the citizens of India.
• Source of the authority of the Constitution: It states that the Constitution derives its authority from the people of Indian Union.
• Date of adoption of the Constitution of India: November 26, 1949.

7. In Berubari Union case (1960) - the Apex Court gave an statement that the Preamble isn’t a "part" of the Constitution.

 

8. In Kesavananda Bharati case (1973) - The Apex Court rejected the earlier statement and held that Preamble is a part of the Constitution.

 

9. Provisions in the preamble are non-enforceable by the court, that is, it’s non-justiciable. The Preamble neither is a source of power to legislature nor limits the powers of the legislature.

THE UNION & ITS TERRITORY

1. Articles 1 to 4 in Part-I of the Constitution tells us about the Union and its territory.
2. Article 1: In this article, it is declared that India (that is Bharat)is   a ‘Union of States’.
3. Article 2: It grants power to the Parliament to "admit a new state into the Union of India, or establish new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks the best fit". Thus, Article 2 grants two powers to the Parliament: (i) the power to admit new states into the Union of India; and (ii) the power to establish new states.
4. Article 3 is related to the formation of or changes in the existing states of the Union of India. In other words, Article 3 tells us about the internal re-arrangement of territories in the Union of India.
5. Some committees that were important in the re-organization of states in the Indian Union are listed below– 

• Dhar Commission (1956)
• Fazl Ali Commission,
• JVP Committee and
• States Reorganization Commission.

6. New states that were created after 1956 with year are listed below- 

• Maharashtra and Gujarat - In 1960, 
• Goa, Daman and Diu - These 3 territories are acquired from the Portuguese by means of a police action in 1961. They were constituted as two different union territories of India by the 12th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1962. Later, Goa was was converted into a state, in 1987
• Nagaland - In 1963,
• Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh - In 1966 
• Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya In 1972, 
• Sikkim in 1974-75,  
• Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa In 1987, 
• Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand In 2000, 
• Telangana on 2^nd June, 2014.

THE CITIZENSHIP

1. Articles 5-11 part 2nd of the constitution deal with citizenship.
2. The Constitution gives the following rights and privileges to the citizens of India (and denies the same to aliens):

• Rights given under Articles 15, 16, 19, 29 & 30.
• Right to contest for the membership of the Parliament Houses and the state legislature.
• Right to vote in elections of the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assembly.
• The eligibility to hold certain public offices, like President of India, Vice President of India, judges of the Apex Court and the judges of high courts, governors of the states, attorney general of India and advocate generals of the states.

3. Articles 5-8 only deal with the citizenship of individuals who had become citizens of India at the commencement of the Constitution. Also, these articles take into account migration issues.
4. If someone voluntarily acquires the citizenship of any other foreign state he will not be a citizen of India or will not be considered as a citizen of India (Article 9).
5. Every person who is a citizen of India shall continue to be such a citizen, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament (Article 10).
6. The Parliament will have the power to make any provision about the termination and the acquisition of the citizenship of India and all other matters related to citizenship (Article 11).
7. Hence, the Parliament enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which was amended in 1986, 1992, 2003, and 2005 and most recently in 2015. and the amendment bill 2016 is still pending though.
8. The five modes of acquisition of citizenship as per the citizenship act are: 
   (a) By Birth
   (b) By Descent
   (c) By Naturalization
   (d) By Registration
   (e) By the acquisition of any other territory into the Indian Union.
9. Ways to Loss Citizenship are by – Termination, Renunciation, and Deprivation.
10. India provides for single citizenship.
11. PIO- A person registered as a PIO cardholder under the Ministry of Home Affairs’ scheme dated August 19, 2002.
12. OCI- A person registered as an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) under the Citizenship Act, 1955. The OCI scheme is operational from December 2, 2005.
13. Now both the schemes have been merged with effect from 9^th January 2015.