Indian Polity Quotes

“Article 1 describes India, that is, Bharat as a ‘Union of States’ rather than a ‘Federation of States’. This provision deals with two things: one, name of the country; and two, type of polity.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity - For Civil Services and Other State Examinations

“B K Nehru observed: “The communal electorates (of the British days) in a vestigal form still remain in the shape of reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They serve to emphasise caste origin and make people conscious of the caste in which they were born. This is not conducive to national integeration”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The CBI is not a statutory body. It derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“when a bill, which has originated in the council and was sent to the assembly, is rejected by the assembly, the bill ends and becomes dead.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The question of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule is decided by the Chairman, in the case of legislative council and, Speaker, in the case of legislative assembly (and not by the governor). In”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 had frozen total number of seats in the assembly of each state and the division of such state into territorial constituencies till the year 2000 at the 1971 level. This ban on readjustment has been extended for another 25 years (ie, upto year 2026) by the 84th Amendment Act of 2001 with the same objective of encouraging population limiting measures.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The Constitution provides for the abolition or creation of legislative councils in states. Accordingly, the Parliament can abolish a legislative council (where it already exists) or create it (where it does not exist), if the legislative assembly of the concerned state passes a resolution to that effect. Such a specific resolution must be passed by the state assembly by a special majority, that is, a majority of the total membership of the assembly and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the assembly present and voting. This Act of Parliament is not to be deemed as an amendment of the Constitution for the purposes of Article 368 and is passed like an ordinary piece of legislation (ie, by simple majority).”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Articles 168 to 212 in Part VI of the Constitution deal with the organisation, composition, duration, officers, procedures, privileges, powers and so on of the state legislature. Though these are similar to that of Parliament, there are some differences as well.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“the American Constitution provides for ‘due process of law’ against that of ‘procedure established by law’ which is contained in the Indian Constitution. The difference between the two is : ‘The due process of law gives wide scope to the Supreme Court to grant protection to the rights of its citizens. It can declare laws violative of these rights void not only on substantive grounds of being unlawful, but also on procedural grounds of being unreasonable. Our Supreme Court, while determining the constitutionality of a law, however examines only the substantive question i.e., whether the law is within the powers of the authority concerned or not. It is not expected to go into the question of its reasonableness, suitability or policy implications.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Parliament is not, in practice, sovereign. The parliamentary democracy has now collapsed at Westminster. The basic defect in the British system of governing is the super-ministerial powers of the Prime Minister.’ The same description holds good to the Indian context too.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The President may first appoint him the Prime Minister and then ask him to prove his majority in the Lok Sabha within a reasonable period. For example, Charan Singh (1979), VP Singh (1989), Chandrasekhar (1990), PV Narasimha Rao (1991), AB Vajyapee (1996), Deve Gowda (1996), IK Gujral (1997) and again AB Vajpayee (1998) were appointed as Prime Ministers in this way.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Dr Ambedkar is dead and the Articles are very much alive’.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Indian Union is a unitary state with subsidiary federal features rather than a federal state with subsidiary unitary features.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The Parliament is empowered to legislate on any subject of the State List if Rajya Sabha passes a resolution to that effect in the national interest. This”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“there are all-India services (IAS, IPS, and IFS) which are common to both the Centre and the states. The members of these services are recruited and trained by the Centre which also possess ultimate control over them. Thus, these services violate the principle of federalism under the Constitution.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The states are given representation in the Rajya Sabha on the basis of population. Hence, the membership varies from 1 to 31. In US, on the other hand, the principle of equality of representation of states in the Upper House is fully recognised. Thus, the American Senate has 100 members, two from each state. This principle is regarded as a safeguard for smaller states.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The Constitution provides for a bicameral legislature consisting of an Upper House (Rajya Sabha) and a Lower House (Lok Sabha). The Rajya Sabha represents the states of Indian Federation, while the Lok Sabha represents the people of India as a whole. The Rajya Sabha (even though a less powerful chamber) is required to maintain the federal equilibrium by protecting the interests of the states against the undue interference of the Centre.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The Indian federal system is based on the ‘Canadian model’ and not on the ‘American model’. The ‘Canadian model’ differs fundamentally from the ‘American model’ in so far as it establishes a very strong centre. The Indian federation resembles the Candian federation (i) in its formation (i.e., by way of disintegration); (ii) in its preference to the term ‘Union’ (the Canadian federation is also called a ‘Union’); and (iii) in its centralising tendency (i.e., vesting more powers in the centre vis-a-vis the states).”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Till 1973, Lakshadweep was known by the name of Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Under the original Constitution of J&K (1957), the head of the state and head of the government were designated as Sadar-i-Riyasat (President) and Wazir-i-Azam (Prime Minister) respectively.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“To sum up, these provisions deal with the citizenship of (a) persons domiciled in India; (b) persons migrated from Pakistan; (c) persons migrated to Pakistan but later returned; and (d) persons of Indian origin residing outside India. The other constitutional provisions with respect to the citizenship are as follows: 1.No person shall be a citizen of India or be deemed to be a citizen of India, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign state (Article 9). 2.Every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India shall continue to be such citizen, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament (Article 10). 3.Parliament shall have the power to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship (Article 11).”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The ideal of justice—social, economic and political—has been taken from the Russian Revolution (1917).”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“A republic also means two more things: one, vesting of political sovereignty in the people and not in a single individual like a king; second, the absence of any privileged class and hence all public offices being opened to every citizen without any discrimination.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty, would kill individual initiative”.12a”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The Indian Constitution embodies the positive concept of secularism ie, all religions in our country (irrespective of their strength) have the same status and support from the state10.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“The term ‘secular’ too was added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“the Fundamental Rights are not absolute and subject to reasonable restrictions. Further, they are not sacrosanct and can be curtailed or repealed by the Parliament through a constitutional amendment act. They can also be suspended during the operation of a National Emergency except the rights guaranteed by Articles 20 and 21.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Originally (1949), the Constitution contained a Preamble, 395 Articles (divided into 22 Parts) and 8 Schedules. Presently (2013), it consists of a Preamble, about 465 Articles (divided into 25 Parts) and 12 Schedules2. The various amendments carried out since 1951 have deleted about 20 Articles and one Part (VII) and added about 85 Articles, four Parts (IVA, IXA, IXB and XIVA) and four Schedules (9, 10, 11 and 12). No other Constitution in the world has so many Articles and Schedules3.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“Even though the Indian Parliamentary System is largely based on the British pattern, there are some fundamental differences between the two. For example, the Indian Parliament is not a sovereign body like the British Parliament. Further, the Indian State has an elected head (republic) while the British State has hereditary head (monarchy).”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity

“the term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the Constitution. Article 1, on the other hand, describes India as a ‘Union of States’ which implies two things: one, Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement by the states; and two, no state has the right to secede from the federation.”
― M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity