Law and You > Administrative Law > Administrative Law and the Constitution
The Constitution of India is a wholly written document which incorporates the constitutional law of India. It is the largest written liberal democratic constitution of the world. When drafted it had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules at the time of commencement. Now the Constitution of India has 448 articles in 25 parts and 12 schedules. There are 101 amendments that have been made in the Indian constitution up to 2016. The constitution reproduces certain parts of the Government of India Act, 1935, providing for the administrative details. In this article we shall discuss relation between administrative law and constitution.
The Preamble of Constitution:
The preamble to the Constitution enunciates the great objectives and the socio-economic goals for the achievement of which the Indian Constitution has been established. These are: to secure to all citizens of India social, economic and political justice; to secure to all Indian citizens liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; to secure to them equality of status and opportunity, and to promote among them fraternity so as to secure the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation. The word ‘Sovereign’ means an independent country completely free from foreign control. The word ‘Socialist’ in the preamble means a fair distribution of the wealth of the country among all sections of people. It also means providing equal opportunities to everyone to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. The word ‘Secular’ in the preamble indicates that the state does not favour or promote any particular religion.
Federal System:
India has adopted a federal system of governance. The Constitution deals with the organization and structure not only of the central Government but also of the states. In a federal system, Center-State relations are a matter of crucial importance. Indian Constitution has detailed norms about these relations. The Constitution clearly provided a threefold and clear distribution of legislative powers between the Union Government and the State Governments. Thus, it contains three lists: Union List, State List, and Concurrent List. The Union Government alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the Union List (e.g. defence, foreign relations, telecommunication, etc.). The State Governments alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the State List (e.g. agriculture, irrigation, etc.). Both the Union as well as the State Governments can make laws on the subjects mentioned in this list (e.g. education, forest, etc.). Thus the Constitution marks off the sphere of action of each level of government by devising an elaborate scheme of distribution of legislative, administrative, and financial powers between the Centre and the States. A government is entitled to act within its assigned field and cannot go out of it, or encroach on the field assigned to the other government.
Social Equity:
India is a country of diverse cultures. People follow different religions and beliefs. Hence there exist various communities and groups in India. To remove mutual distrust among them, the Constitution provided detailed provisions on Fundamental Rights, safeguards to minorities, Scheduled tribes scheduled castes and backward classes. The essential basis of the Indian Constitution is that all citizens are equal and that the religion of a citizen is entirely irrelevant in the matter of his fundamental rights. The Constitution confers equal freedom for all religions and provides that the religion of the citizen has nothing to do in socio-economic matters.
The Constitution contains not only the fundamental principles of governance but also many administrative details, such as the provisions regarding citizenship, official languages, government services, electoral machinery, etc. This guaranteed the smooth and efficient working of the Constitution and the democratic process in the country. The administration processes are made consistent with constitutional provisions.
From the preamble, of the Constitution, we can see that the Constitution declares that India will be organized as a social welfare state, i.e., a state that renders social services to the people and promotes their general welfare. This concept of a welfare state is further strengthened by the Directive Principles of State Policy, which set out the economic, social and political goals of the Indian constitutional system. These directives confer certain non-justiceable rights on the people and place the governments under an obligation to achieve and maximize social welfare and basic social values like education, employment, health, etc.
Fundamental Rights:
The Constitution of India under its Part IIIC Articles (12-35), grants and guarantees Fundamental Rights to its citizens such as, inter alia, equal protection of laws, freedom of speech and expression freedom of worship and religion. Freedom of assembly and association, freedom to move freely and to reside and settle anywhere in India, freedom to follow any occupation, trade or business, freedom of person, freedom against double jeopardy and against export facto laws. The legislature and the executive cannot take away these rights unless it is necessary to do so in the public interest. The people can claim their Fundamental Rights against the state subject to some restrictions. These restrictions on Fundamental Rights are expressly mentioned in the Constitution itself and, therefore, these rights can be qualified or abridged only to the extent laid down in the Constitution. These rights, in substance, constitute a check on the legislative and executive organs of the state. No law or executive action infringing a Fundamental Right can be regarded as valid.
Independent Judiciary:
The Constitution provided a very crucial position to the judiciary. The Constitution provides for a single integrated judicial system common for the Union and the states. The Supreme Court of India works at the apex level, High Courts at the state level and other courts work under the High Courts. The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, having the power of the judicial review. At the same time, the constitution attempts at the reconciliation of the principle of judicial review and parliamentary supremacy. The Courts have the power to examine laws and executive acts and test their conformity with the constitution and struck them down if they are found to be inconsistent with it. Judiciary interprets the constitution and acts as its protector and guardian by keeping all authorities legislative, executive, administrative, judicial and quasi-judicial within bounds. The judiciary supervises the administrative process in the country and acts as the balance wheel of federalism by settling disputes between the center and the states or among the state inter se.
The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is very broadly worded in the Constitution. It is a general court of appeal from the High Court, is the ultimate arbiter in all-constitutional matters and enjoys an advisory jurisdiction. It can hear appears from any court or tribunal in the country and can issue a writ for enforcing the Fundamental Rights (article 32). There is a High Court in each State. The High Courts have wide jurisdiction and have been constituted into important instruments of justice. The most signification aspect of their jurisdiction is the power to issue writs (Article 226).
Relation Between the Constitution and Administrative Law:
The learned author, Messey, has rightly pointed out, whatever may be the arguments and counter-arguments, the fact remains that the administrative law is recognized as a separate, independent branch of the legal discipline,. Though at times the disciplines of constitutional law and administrative law may overlap.