You Must Know Your Constitution

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Description
'The life of a written constitution-like the life of the law-is not logic (or draftsmanship), but experience. Past experience of seventy-three years has shown that it is easier to draft  a constitution than to work it. In the same subcontinent, Pakistan and Bangladesh had crafted written constitutions at different times, but they were interspersed with periods of martial law and civil and military dictatorships. We will never be able to piece together a new constitution in the present day and age even if we tried, because innovative ideas, however brilliant and howsoever encouragingly expressed in consultation papers and reports of commissions, cannot give us an ideal constitution. In constitution making, and in working a constitution, there are other forces that can never be ignored, viz., the spirit of humanism and the spirit of persuasion, of accommodation, and of tolerance.'
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Why You Must Know Your Constitution
Chapter One
From Undivided British India-through Partition to the Dominion of India, and finally, to the Republic of India
Chapter Two
(A) How India's Constitution Almost Never Got Finalised
(B) After the Constitution was finalised and Came Into Force-By Whom Was It To Be Interpreted?
Chapter Three
A Roller-Coaster Ride through Twenty-Five Parts of India's Constitution
Chapter Four
The 'Magnificent Prelude' to the Constitution: Exploring the Preamble and Its Features
Chapter Five
'The Conscience of the Constitution': Directive Principles of State Policy (Part-IV) and Fundamental Rights (Part-III)
Chapter Six
The Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary (Part-V and Part-VI of the Constitution)
Chapter Seven
Analysis and Comments on Particular Articles:
I. Powers and Privileges of Parliament and State Legislatures, and Their Members (Articles 105 and 194)
II. On the Power of the Governor to Grant Pardons and to Suspend, Remit, or Commute Sentences in Certain Cases(Article 161 in Part-VI;
III The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (Articles 147 to 151)
IV. (a) Elections (Articles 324 to 329) (b) Election Commission
Chapter Eight
The Constitution Today and Prospects for the Future
Acknowledgements
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Author Details
Fali S. Nariman