Revision Sheet — Paper III: Constitutional Democracy and Government in India

Definitions

• —Constituent Assembly — the body that drafted the Constitution after Independence.
• —Fundamental Rights — justiciable constitutional guarantees enforceable against the state.
• —Directive Principles of State Policy — constitutional directions to the state on social and economic goals, non-justiciable.

Arguments to remember

• —The Constitution is a negotiated settlement between liberty and justice and between a strong union and decentralisation.
• —Rights and Directive Principles pull in different directions: rights constrain the state, Directive Principles require it to act.
• —The syllabus flags Topic 1 as carrying a compulsory question with internal choice — prepare it in depth.

Key terms

Do not confuse

Definitions

• —Separation of powers — the constitutional distribution of functions among the legislature, executive and judiciary.
• —Governor — the constitutional head of a State who acts on the advice of the State executive.

Arguments to remember

• —The syllabus groups the organs as Legislature (Parliament), Executive (President, Prime Minister, Governor) and Judiciary (Supreme Court).
• —Each organ checks the others — this mutual restraint, not strict separation, is the Indian design.
• —The Governor sits with the executive because that is where the constitutional function lies.

Key terms

Do not confuse

Definitions

• —Federalism — the constitutional division of authority between a central government and State governments.
• —Decentralisation — the extension of authority below the State level to local bodies.
• —Panchayati Raj — the three-tier system of rural local government recognised in the Constitution.

Arguments to remember

• —The paper frames Indian federalism as a tension between a strong union and territorial decentralisation.
• —Emergency provisions are three in number and each has its own conditions and consequences.
• —Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas have protections distinct from ordinary States.
• —Decentralisation is constitutionally recognised through panchayati raj and urban local bodies, but operates unevenly.

Key terms

Do not confuse

Definitions

• —Preventive detention — detention without trial, on grounds of preventing threatened disorder rather than punishing an offence.
• —Extra-ordinary laws — statutes providing exceptional powers, including anti-terror laws and laws against organised crime.

Arguments to remember

• —Preventive detention sits within the Constitution subject to specific constitutional exceptions.
• —Extra-ordinary laws show emergency-style powers persisting in ordinary peacetime legislation.
• —The paper treats security legislation as the live test of the Constitution's internal liberty–justice conflict.

Key terms

Do not confuse