Constitution
Magna Carta of Peoples Rights
"The Constitution of India" is, according to eminent Jursit Mr.
Justice Krishna Iyer, (former Judge of the Supreme Court of India) in
a landmark judgment; "The documentation of founding faiths of a
Nation and a fundamental direction for their fulfilment. It is a
social residue, a spiritual apetiser a seeper legal parchment, an
economic directive and political programme shift". Laws may be
validated by courts but are legitimised by community, the law grow
with the needs of community.
The Constitution being the "Supremalex" and the appointed instrument
of the Indian Revolution, we must look to it for guidance regarding
the direction, content and development of low.
We must remember that laws are means, life the end. Laws are not self
created. Life weaves the web of law. In a higher sense, laws are not
validated by courts, but legitimated by community, the Laws grow with
the needs of community.
The Constitution of India with elegant brevity, amidst avoidable prolixity,
as articulated in its very preamble shows the soial mission of the
rule of law and the development goals of state and society in a
sense, if guarantees the dignity of the individual, social and
economic equality. (Please see "The Integral Yoga of Public Law
and Development in the Context of India" by the Justice V. R.
Krishna Iyer). A constitution is essential different from pleadings
filed in court by litigating parties Pleadings contain claims and
counter claims of private parties engaged in litigation, while a
constitution provides for the framework of the different organs of
the State, viz, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. A
constitution also reflects the hopes and aspirations of people,
Besides laying down the norms from the functioning of different
organs, a constitution encompasses within itself the board
indications as to how the nation is to march forward in time to come.
A constitution cannot be regarded as a mere legal document to be read
as a will of an agreement nor is a constitution like plaint or
written statement filed in a suit between two litigants. A
constitution must of necessity be the vehicle of the life of a
nation. It has also to be borne in mind that a constitution is not a
gate but a road. Beneath the drafting of a constitution is the awareness
that things do not stand still but move on, that life of a
progressive nation, as of an individual, is not static and stagnant,
but dynamic and dashful.
A constitution must, therefore, contain ample provision for experiment
and trial in the task of administration. A constitution, it needs to
be emphasised, is not a document for fastidious dialectics but the
means of ordering the life of a people. It has its roots in the past,
its continuity is reflected in the present and it is intended for the
unknown future.
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