This is part of series of [[15 Video Lectures on Indian Constitution]] **Navigate to other lectures in this series:** [[Introduction to Indian Constitution]] | [[Constituent Assembly Debates]] | [[Preamble of Indian Constitution]] | [[Citizenship in India]] | [[Right to Equality]] | [[Reservation Policies and Indian Constitution]] | [[Freedom of Speech & Expression]] | [[Right to Life and Personal Liberty]] | [[Freedom of Religion]] | [[Rights of Minorities]] | [[Directive Principles]] | [[Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles & Fundamental Duties’ Relationship]] | [[Union Executive Powers & Position of President & Prime Minister]] | [[Indian Judiciary]] | [[Constitutional Amendments & the Basic Structure Theory]] Namaskar, hello welcome to NALSAR University of Law for the online course on Indian Constitution sponsored by Department of Legal Affairs Ministry of Law and Justice Government of India. I am Fazan Mustafa, I am the Vice Chancellor of Nal sir and the President of Consortium of National Law Universities. We are starting today an online course on Indian Constitution. Now why we should do this course? We should do this course because this course will make us better citizens of India and help us in understanding our interesting, glorious constitutional journey. It will help us understand that constitution is the supreme law of the land and all laws are subordinate to it and must be consistent with it. The course will also tell us what are our fundamental rights, what are restrictions on our fundamental rights. The course will also help us in understanding power structure of the country, what are the powers of various organs of the government, legislature, executive, judiciary, what parliament can do, what parliament cannot do, what executive can do, what executive cannot do, what is the kind of relationship center has with states, the course will also help us in getting familiarized with some of the important provisions of the constitution of India and some of the leading judgments of our codes. It will help us in appreciating and understanding the ongoing developments regarding Indian Constitution and the new proposals of reforms. Now what are the course details? Anyone who has passed class 10 can join this course. What is the duration of the course? We will try to finish this course in 15 lectures and at the end of the course there will be an examination. Not a very difficult one but you will have 50 multiple choice questions and to get certificate from Nal sir University of law which you know UGC has categorized as category 1 university and NAC has accredited with the highest score of 3.61 out of 4 with a double plus rank. And the language of the course English, what is the course syllabus, what are we going to deal? In this course we will look at how constitutions are drafted, when a country drafts a constitution, what is that particular point of time at which a country decides that let us have a new constitution or let us draft our own constitution. What a constitution should contain, what are the various types of the constitution? We will understand it in the very first lecture of this course. Followed by the kind of debates we have in our Constituent Assembly. We had a long history of constitutional developments in the country. We were ruled by the British and there was a whole struggle for countries independence under the national movement. So how Constituent Assembly was framed, how they drafted the constitution, who are the leading participants in the discussions on the constitution will be discussed in this course. Then we will discuss the preemble of the constitution. We are very proud of our preemble because preemble tells us our aspirations, the kind of India we want to create. We will discuss what is there in the preemble, how preemble can be amended and how preemble is used in the interpretation of the constitution. We will also discuss in this course, who is an Indian citizen, how Indian citizenship is acquired. Then we will discuss fundamental rights for any constitution, the most important provisions deal with fundamental rights. We have number of fundamental rights. One right to property has now been deleted by the 44th amendment. So we will discuss right to equality, what is reasonable classification, why constitution forbids class legislation, but permits classification. We will also discuss the whole question of reservation. How long reservation would continue, what improvements can be made in our reservation policies. All the time and democracy, there is a discussion about freedom of speech and expression and the limits of freedom of speech and expression. We have discussions about sedition, should we retain the provision or decriminalize it. Similarly, the provision of blasphemy, the provision of defamation, which many people say should be decriminalized, but recently our Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of defamation provision and then go to the most important fundamental right. The right to life and liberty and discuss cases about privacy, about Adhaar and how Supreme Court has included right to privacy within the right to life and personal liberty. Indians are essentially religious people. And therefore our secularism is different from European secularism. We adopted secularism because we want to be a religion neutral state because secularism is the core of modernity. What is freedom of religion? Am I entitled to each and every practice of my religion under freedom of speech and expression? The answer is no because our Supreme Court has developed what is called doctrine of essentiality under which it is the Supreme Court which decides what is essential and what is non-essential feature of my religion. And I am entitled only to essential religious practices. There have been issues about religious prayers in the schools. We will look at Article 28 of Indian Constitution. Then Indian Constitution is considered to be a far-sighted, inclusive document which promotes multiculturalism and confers on linguistic and religious minorities right to establish educational institutions of their choice and to administer those institutions. It confers on every citizen of India who has a distinct language, script and culture to conserve his culture, conserve his script and conserve his language. We will also discuss about Directive Principles of State Policy. The Directive Principles of State Policy are the positive obligations of the state while fundamental rights are negative restrictions on the power of the state. What is the relationship between fundamental rights and Directive Principles? What is the relationship between fundamental rights and fundamental duties will also be discussed? Similarly, we will also discuss the Union Executive, the Prime Minister, President Relationship, President's audience making power many a times when parliament is not in session. The President has to promulgate audiences. We need to discuss appointment of judges, how judges are appointed, what is the schoolegean system, what is this power of judicial review, is power of judicial review anti-democratic because even when parliament has unanimously passed the law, few judges can strike it down. Then we will discuss the emending powers. No one generation can claim the monopoly of wisdom. Unfortunately, the framers of Indian constitution were visionary people of their generation but they were aware of their limitations and that is why to keep constitution as a living document, they have given power to the future generations to suitably amend the constitution whenever such a need arises. We will also discuss some of the important amendments and the kind of a trussle we have seen between the parliament and the supreme court on the whole question of power to amend the constitution. We will also discuss the doctrine of basic structure which was developed by the supreme court in the celebrated case of Kishaman and the Bharati who recently passed away. We will also discuss the distinction between constituent power and ordinary legislative power. And this is how we will give you a bird's eye view of our constitution. If you know all these subjects, you will definitely be much better informed, aware citizen of India and can discharge your duties as citizen more efficiently. Let me now come to the first lecture of this course. In this lecture, we are going to discuss what is constitution, when a constitution is drafted, what are the types of the constitution, what constitution should contain, etc. etc. Now do the first question, what is constitution? Constitution is the holiest book for any constitutional democracy. If you are a constitutional democracy, for people who may follow certain religions, the divine books of those religions may be important. But for a nation, there will be only one holy book and this sacred book is called Constitution of that country. Constitution is the supreme law of any country. You know the principle in law is ignorance, juris, non-excuse it. Ignorance of law is no defense. Law is everywhere from cradle to grave and we must know laws. In the hierarchy of laws, at the top of the pyramid is the constitution because it is the supreme law of land and no law can be there which contravenes or violates the constitution. If any law is passed by any legislative assembly of the state or by the union parliament and such a law is in conflict with the provisions of the constitution, that law is to be stood down by the courts as unconstitutional and null and void. Constitution is also a kind of a sacred pact, a kind of a Solomon contract, a social contract between people and the state. What are the terms of those contract? And what conditions the people have agreed to give their allegiance and obedience to the state is stated in the constitution. The constitution thus incorporates people's aspirations of the kind of society and the country they want to make. It tells us about our fundamental rights and how can we use those rights? And when our rights are violated, what redressal mechanism is available to us? It also simultaneously tells us what are our fundamental duties, rights and duties are correlated. You cannot have your right without a corresponding duty and therefore they go together, constitution of India in 1976 got fundamental duties inserted by the 42nd amendment. Constitution also tells us about the powers of various organs of the government. What are the powers of the legislature? Powers of the executive, powers of the judiciary. It also tells us about the kind of central state relationship. Then the next question which we must understand and answer is, why a country drafts a constitution? A country drafts a constitution to achieve constitutionalism. What is this constitutionalism? Constitutionalism is an idea of limited government. Constitutionalism furthers and promotes the same old idea which ancient Indian philosophy has been terming as Raj Dharma. What is the duty of the king? What is the duty of the state? How state has to conduct itself? That is what is written in the constitution. So a country wants to make a document in which it states Raj Dharma, in which it states limitations on the powers of the state. And this a country drafts a constitution because it wants that no organ of the government should cross what is term? Constitutional boundaries. And it also recognizes. Constitutional rights. In the rights jurisprudence, we do not say constitution, converse rights. Because the idea is every human being is born with certain natural, inalienable, indivisible rights. So constitution recognizes those rights. Then when a country drafts a constitution? What is that particular point of time at which a country feels that it must now draft a constitution? The answer to this question can be given in one word, break. Break from the past. When in the history of that country, it reaches a point which can be termed as a break from the past. Then a country which is making a new beginning can set the new agenda. And this new agenda is incorporated in the constitution. When can we say that a country has reached that point which can be termed as break from the past? I can think of four situations. One is, and which is the case with most third world countries that they get independence from colonial powers. So they got, for instance, we got independence from Britain in 1947. And therefore, we started our process of drafting the constitution in 1946 itself. We will tell the details of this in the next lecture. Or when there is a revolution. So if you have Bolshevik revolution, you have French revolution. Whenever there is a revolution, after the revolution, you would make a constitution. Similarly, when a country gets partitioned, it is a new beginning for both the countries. And therefore, the generally draft a constitution. Similarly, when two countries come together and merge with each other, it is a new beginning for them. And therefore, the stage is set for the drafting of the constitution. What are the various types of the constitution? Before we go to Indian constitution, I think it is important that we get this theoretical framework. Constitutions are of various types. You can have a written constitution. You can also have an unwritten constitution. England for instance is set to have an unwritten constitution. Because in England, there is no one document which is called Constitution of Great Britain. The classical example of a written constitution is that of United States of America, Constitution of India. Most countries today have written constitution. A written constitution is a written constitution, but there are things which are not written in this constitution. Similarly, we can also classify constitutions based on the kind of center-state relationship they had. So if center is more powerful, it is set to be a unitary constitution. If center and states coordinate with each other, there is a distribution of power between them. And each operate within its own is a lot of sphere. It is called a federal constitution. The constitutions are also classified. On the basis of kind of governmental structure they have. Therefore, if you have a president who have all the powers, it is called the presidential model of government as you have in United States of America. Or you may have parliamentary democracy as we have in India and we have in Great Britain and we have in many other countries. Similarly, constitutions are also classified. On the basis of kind of amending process they have. If the process to amend the constitution is very difficult, it is called rigid constitution. The constitution of United States has a very difficult cumbersome amending process. If the amending process is easy as is there in the New Zealand, New Zealand's constitution can be amended like an ordinary law. So it is the most flexible constitution of the world. Indian constitution has a blend of both. They are flexible as well as rigid. Some provisions of our constitution can be amended like an ordinary law. But for other provisions not only parliament has to pass those amendments by two-third majority, but ratification by half of the states is required. Then what a constitution should condemn? What should be written in the constitution? In my view, the constitution should not say too much. They should be brief. And therefore I would say the constitution must contain the minimum. And on this parameter, the best constitution in the world is the constitution of United States of America. On the other hand, we have almost tried to say everything in our constitution. And that is why Indian constitution is the lendiest constitution in the world. If you look at our original constitution, we had as many as 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules. Subsequently, we brought in number of amendments. We will discuss that when we reach amending process of Indian constitution. Now to summarize today's lecture, what did we learn today? We learned that constitution is the supreme law of the country, that constitution signifies a compact between people and state. Constitution limits the power of the state. It tells us about our rights. It tells us about our duties. It gives us an idea about the power structure of the state. And constitution is drafted when there is a break from the past. Ideally, a constitution must be brief. Now in the next lecture, we will discuss the British colonial government in India, how the Indian national movement fought for constitutional reforms, how British agreed to formation of our constant assembly, the process which Indian constant assembly adopted in drafting the constitution, what kind of choices they made for our constitution. This will be an important lecture. Thank you very much for your patience and see you soon in the next lecture. Thank you. ---  *Disclaimer: I am not asserting any claim over this content. The content is entirely from the Ministry of Law & Justice and NALSAR University of Law's joint online course on the Indian Constitution. My effort has been to make the transcript available for people like myself who prefer to read or quote it rather than to listen. This is part of my public self-archiving project. For more details, see [notes.daktre.com](https://notes.daktre.com) or [daktre.com](https://daktre.com).* Last updated: 2026-02-21 22:04