Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon | Polity (Indian Constitution) | November 4,2020

Article 23 of Indian constitution: Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour.
•Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
•Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purposes, and in imposing such service the State shall not make any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of them.
Source: Laxmikanth

The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 (Act No. 20 of 1990 of Govt.of India ) to :
•review the Constitutional and Legal safeguards for women ;
•recommend remedial legislative measures ;
•facilitate redressal of grievances and
•advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.
In keeping with its mandate, the Commission initiated various steps to improve the status of women and worked for their economic empowerment during the year under report.
•The Commission completed its visits to all the States / UTs except Lakshdweep and prepared Gender Profiles to assess the status of women and their empowerment.
•It received a large number of complaints and acted suo-moto in several cases to provide speedy justice.
•It took up the issue of child marriage, sponsored legal awareness programmes, Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats and reviewed laws such as Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, PNDT Act 1994, Indian Penal Code 1860 and the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 to make them more stringent and effective.
•It organized workshops / consultations, constituted expert committees on economic empowerment of women, conducted workshops / seminars for gender awareness and took up publicity campaign against female feticide, violence against women etc. in order to generate awareness in the society against these social evils.
Source: NCW

Regulating act of 1773was of great constitutional importance as
•it was the first step taken by the British Government to control and regulate the affairs of the East India Company in India;
•it recognised, for the first time, the political and administrative functions of the Company; and
•it laid the foundations of central administration in India.
The features of this Act were as follows:
•It designated the Governor of Bengal as the ‘Governor- General of Bengal’ and created an Executive Council of four members to assist him. The first such Governor General was Lord Warren Hastings.
•It made the governors of Bombay and Madras presidencies subordinate to the governor-general of Bengal, unlike earlier, when the three presidencies were independent of one another.
•It provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court at Calcutta (1774) comprising one chief justice and three other judges.
•It prohibited the servants of the Company from engaging in any private trade or accepting presents or bribes from the ‘natives’.
Source: Laxmikanth

The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.
The features of the scheme were:
•The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were to be allotted to British India and 93 seats to the princely states. Out of 296 seats allotted to the British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors’ provinces and four from the four Chief Commissioners’ provinces, one from each.
•Each province and princely state (or groups of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million population.
•Seats allocated to each British province were to be divided among the three principal communities–Muslims, Sikhs and General (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population.
•The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
•The representatives of the princely states were to be nominated by the heads of the princely states.
Source: Laxmikanth

The Constituent Assembly appointed a number of committees to deal with different tasks of constitution-making. Out of these, eight were major committees and the others were minor committees. The names of these committees and their Chairman are given below:
Major Committees:
1. Union Powers Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru
2. Union Constitution Committee -Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Provincial Constitution Committee -Sardar Patel
4. Drafting Committee – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas – Sardar Patel. This committee had the following five sub-committees:
(a) Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee – J.B. Kripalani
(b) Minorities Sub-Committee – H.C. Mukherjee
(c) North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee –Gopinath Bardoloi
(d) Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee – A.V. Thakkar
(e) North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee
6. Rules of Procedure Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
7. States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) – Jawaharlal Nehru
8. Steering Committee – Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Source: Laxmikanth

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar introduced the final draft of the Constitution in the Assembly on November 4, 1948 (first reading). The Assembly had a general discussion on it for five days (till November 9, 1948).
•The second reading (clause by clause consideration) started on November 15, 1948, and ended on October 17, 1949.
•During this stage, as many as 7653 amendments were proposed and 2473 were actually discussed in the Assembly.
•The third reading of the draft started on November 14, 1949. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar moved a motion–‘the Constitution as settled by the Assembly be passed’.
•The motion on Draft Constitution was declared as passed on November 26, 1949, and received the signatures of the members and the president.
•Out of a total 299 members of the Assembly, only 284 were actually present on that day and signed the Constitution.
•This is also the date mentioned in the Preamble as the date on which the people of India in the Constituent Assembly adopted, enacted and gave to them-selves this Constitution.
•The Constitution as adopted on November 26, 1949, contained a Preamble, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules. The Preamble was enacted after the entire Constitution was already enacted.
Source: Laxmikanth

Mahatma Gandhi had first championed the idea of little village republics but it was under P.V. Narasimha Rao that the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, better known as the Panchayati Raj Act, became effective.
Source: Indian Express

Article 256 of the Constitution obligates the State government to ensure implementation of the laws made by Parliament.
•If the State government fails to do so, the Government of India is empowered to give “such directions to a State as may appear… to be necessary”.
•The refusal to enforce the law even after the Centre issues directions would empower the President to impose President’s Rule in those States under Articles 356 and 365.
•The Supreme Court of India has also confirmed this reading of the law in S.R. Bommai v. Union of India.
Source: The Hindu

The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages viz. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Sindhi(added by 21st Amendment Act, 1967) Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali (added by 71st Amendment Act, 1992), Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santal (added by 92nd Amendment 2003). The list had originally 14 languages only but subsequently through amendments 8 new languages were added.
Source: Laxmikanth

Charter Act of 1813 was an act that continued the British East India Company’s rule in India by the Parliament of Britain.
•There was a provision that Company should invest Rs. 1 Lakh every year on the education of Indians.
•The State system of education began with the Charter Act.
Source: NCERT