Polity

During the post-colonial period, the framers of the Indian Constitution envisaged a uniform civil code governing the personal laws in the country and thereby incorporated Article 44 in Part IV of the Indian Constitution in furtherance of the Directive Principles of State Policy. Thereby, making it incumbent on the state to secure for the citizens … Read more

These were laid down by the Supreme Court in a judgment in 1997. This was on a case filed by women’s rights groups, one of which was Vishaka. They had filed a public interest litigation over the alleged gang-rape of Bhanwari Devi, a social worker from Rajasthan. In 1992, she had prevented the marriage of … Read more

NGOs are legally constituted organizations, operate independently from the government and are generally considered to be “non-state, non-profit oriented groups who pursue purposes of public interest”.   Why banned: Many of them were found to be violating some provision of the act in some manner, for example Greenpeace India was banned for exceeding the cap … Read more

Judicial activism, an approach to the exercise of judicial review, or a description of a particular judicial decision, in which a judge is generally considered more willing to decide constitutional issues and to invalidate legislative or executive actions. Its emergence can be traced back to 1893, when Justice Mahmood of Allahabad High Court delivered a … Read more

The features or principles of parliamentary government in India are: Nominal and Real Executives The President is the nominal executive (de jure executive or titular executive) while the Prime Minister is the real executive (de facto executive). Thus, the President is head of the State, while the Prime Minister is head of the government. Article … Read more

The idea of creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1956 when during the course of debate on the report of the States Re-organisation Commission, he suggested that the States proposed to be reorganised may be grouped into four or five zones having an … Read more

President rule can be imposed under article 356 in the event of constitutional breakdown of the state.  After invocation of the article, the state comes under the direct control of the central government. Executive authority us exercised through governor, who has the authority to appoint retired civil servants or other administrators to assist him. In … Read more

Indian constitution is based on the clear but delicate principle of limited separation of powers and responsibilities between different arms of Government, a precondition for smooth functioning of a government. But there are provisions and functioning where there are overlapping of functional areas. For example: Legislature- President is head but works on advice of CoM, … Read more

  Another criticism of Regional Parties is their exclusionary ideology. Some parties like Shiv Sena function on double exclusion, by invoking Maratha and Hindu pride. These thus create artificial differences in society, by highlighting differences and ignoring the commonalities. Most national parties, on the other hand, have all inclusive ‘sarvajanik’ principles, inclusive of all people … Read more

A no-confidence motion is a parliamentary motion which is moved in the Lok Sabha against the entire council of ministers, stating that they are no longer deemed fit to hold positions of responsibility due to their inadequacy in some respect or their failure to carry out their obligations. No prior reason needs to be stated … Read more