jbp123/hello · Datasets at Hugging Face

instruction stringlengths 1 84	input stringlengths 1 85	output stringlengths 1 83
optimally used.	4. The Citizens’ Charters be prepared by every service	providing department / agency to enumerate the
entitlements of the citizens specifically those of the SCs, STs	and other deprived classes.	5. Reservation for SCs, STs and BCs should be brought under
a statute covering all aspects of reservation including setting	up of Arakshan Nyaya Adalats to adjudicate upon all	disputes pertaining to reservation.
6. Residential schools for SCs, STs and BCs should be	established in every district in the country.	7. All tribal areas governed by the Fifth Schedule of the
Constitution should be transferred to the Sixth Schedule.	Other tribal areas should also be brought under the Sixth	Schedule.
8. Special courts exclusively to try offences under the SCs and	STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, should be	established.
9. Prevention of untouchability requires, inter alia, effective	punitive action under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.	10. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of
Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, should be strictly	enforced.	11. Steps should be taken for improvement of educational
standards as well as for increasing the political	representation of the minority communities.	12. A fully empowered National Authority for the Liberation and
Rehabilitation of bonded labour should be set up. Similar	authorities should also be established at the state level.	13. As regards women, action covering reservation,
development, empowerment, health and protection against	violence should be taken.	10. On Decentralisation (Panchayats and
Municipalities)	1. The Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules of the Constitution	should be restructured in a manner that creates a separate
fiscal domain for panchayats and municipalities.	2. State panchayat council should be established under the	chairmanship of the chief minister.
3. Panchayats and Municipalities should be categorically	declared to be ‘institutions of self-government’ and exclusive	functions be assigned to them. For this purpose, Articles
243-G and 243-W should be suitably amended.	4. The Election Commission of India should have the power to	issue directions to the State Election Commission for the
discharge of its functions. The State Election Commission	should submit its annual or special reports to the Election	Commission of India and to the Governor. This requires the
amendment of Articles 243-K and 243-ZA.	5. Article 243-E should be amended to the effect that a	reasonable opportunity of being heard shall be given to a
Panchayat before it is dissolved.	6. To ensure uniformity in the practice relating to audit of	accounts, the CAG of India should be empowered to
conduct the audit or lay down accounting standards for	Panchayats.	7. Whenever a Municipality is superseded, a report stating the
grounds for such dissolution should be placed before the	State Legislature.	8. All provisions regarding qualifications and disqualifications
for elections to local authorities should be consolidated in a	single law.	9. The functions of delimitation, reservation and rotation of
seats should be vested in a Delimitation Commission and	not in the State Election Commission.	10. The concept of a distinct and separate tax domain for
municipalities should be recognized.	11. On Institutions in North East India	1. Efforts are to be made to give all the States in this region the
opportunities provided under the 73rd and 74th Constitutional	Amendments. However, this should be done with due regard	to the unique political traditions of the region.
2. The subjects given under the Sixth Schedule and those	mentioned in the Eleventh Schedule could be entrusted to	the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs).
3. Traditional forms of governance should be associated with	self-governance because of the present dissatisfaction.	4. A National Immigration Council should be set up to examine
a range of issues including review of the Citizenship Act, the	Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act, the	Foreigners Act and so on.
5. As regards Nagaland, the Naga Councils should be replaced	by elected representatives of various Naga society groups	with an intermediary tier at the district level.
6. As regards Assam, the Sixth Schedule should be extended	to the Bodoland Autonomous Council and other Autonomous	Councils be upgraded to Autonomous Development
Councils.	7. As regards Meghalaya, a tier of village governance should	be created for a village or a group of villages in the
8. As regards Tripura, the changes which may be made in	respect of other Autonomous Councils should also apply in	respect of the Autonomous District Councils.
9. As regards Mizoram, an intermediary elected tier should be	developed at the district level in areas not covered by the	Sixth Schedule.
10. As regards Manipur, the provisions of the Sixth Schedule	should be extended to hill districts of the State.	12. On Electoral Processes
1. Any person charged with any offence punishable with	imprisonment for a maximum term of five years or more,	should be disqualified for being chosen as or for being a
member of Parliament or Legislature of a State.	2. Any person convicted for any heinous crime like murder,	rape, smuggling, dacoity, etc., should be permanently
debarred from contesting for any political office.	3. Criminal cases against politicians pending before Courts	either for trial or in appeal must be disposed of speedily, if
necessary, by appointing Special Courts.	4. The election petitions should also be decided by special	courts. In the alternative, special election benches may be
constituted in the High Courts and earmarked exclusively for	the disposal of election petitions and election disputes.	5. Any system of State funding of elections bears a close
nexus to the regulation of working of political parties by law	and to the creation of a foolproof mechanism under law with	a view to implementing the financial limits strictly. Therefore,
proposals for State funding should be deferred till these	regulatory mechanisms are firmly in position.	6. Candidates should not be allowed to contest election
simultaneously for the same office from more than one	constituency.	7. The election code of conduct should be given the sanctity of
law and its violation should attract penal action.	8. The Commission while recognizing the beneficial potential of	the system of run off contest electing the representative
against the present first-past-the-post system, for a more	representative democracy, recommends that the	Government and the Election Commission of India should
examine this issue of prescribing a minimum of 50 per cent	plus one vote for election in all its aspects.	9. An independent candidate who loses election three times
consecutively should be permanently debarred from	contesting election to the same office.	10. The minimum number of valid votes polled should be
increased to 25 per cent from the current 16.67 per cent as a	condition for the deposit not being forfeited.	11. The issue of eligibility of non-Indian born citizens or those
whose parents or grandparents were citizens of India to hold	high offices in the realm such as President, Vice-President,	Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India should be
examined in depth through a political process after a	national dialogue10 .	12. The Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election
Commissioners should be appointed on the	recommendation of a body consisting of the Prime Minister,	Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Leader of the
Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the Speaker of the Lok	Sabha and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.	Similar procedure should be adopted in the case of
appointment of State Election Commissioners.	13. On Political Parties	1. A comprehensive law regulating the registration and
functioning of political parties or alliances of parties should	be made. The proposed law should-	(a) provide that political party or alliance should keep its
doors open to all citizens irrespective of any distinctions	of caste, community or the like.	(b) make it compulsory for the parties to maintain accounts
of the receipt of funds and expenditure in a systematic	and regular way.	(c) make it compulsory for the political parties requiring their
time of filing their nomination.	(d) provide that no political party should provide ticket to a	candidate if he was convicted by any court for any
criminal offence or if the courts have framed criminal	charges against him.	(e) specifically provide that if any party violates the above
provision , the candidate involved should be liable to be	disqualified and the party deregistered and	derecognized.
2. The Election Commission should progressively increase the	threshold criterion for eligibility for recognition so that the	proliferation of smaller political parties is discouraged.
3. A comprehensive legislation providing for regulation of	contributions to the political parties and towards election	expenses should be enacted by consolidating such laws.
This new law should:	(a) aim at bringing transparency into political funding;	(b) permit corporate donations within higher prescribed
limits;	(c) make donations up to a specified limit tax exempt;	(d) make both donors and donees of political funds
accountable;	(e) provide that audited political party accounts should be	published yearly; and
(f) provide for de-recognition of the party and enforcement	of penalties for filing false election returns.	14. On Anti-Defection Law
The provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution should	be amended to provide the following:	1. All persons defecting (whether individually or in groups) from
the party or the alliance of parties, on whose ticket they had	been elected, must resign from their parliamentary or	assembly seats and must contest fresh elections.
2. The defectors should be debarred to hold any public office of	a minister or any other remunerative political post for at least	the duration of the remaining term of the existing legislature
3. The vote cast by a defector to topple a government should	be treated as invalid.	4. The power to decide questions regarding disqualification on
ground of defection should vest in the Election Commission	instead of in the Speaker / Chairman of the House	concerned.
V. EARLIER EFFORTS TO REVIEW THE	CONSTITUTION	Even before the appointment of this Commission in 2000, certain
attempts were already made to review the working of the	Constitution. The Commission itself has summarized those	attempts in the following 11
way :	1. There was nothing entirely new in the effort at reviewing the	working of our Constitution. The debate had continued right
from the first decade of the life of the Constitution. Also,	every amendment had been an occasion for review. But, in	the half-a-century and more since the Constitution came into
force, whereas as many as eighty-five amendments have	been instituted, there has been (till the setting up of the	National Commission to Review the Working of the
Constitution) no comprehensive and transparent official	exercise to review the working of the Constitution in its	entirety with a view to evaluating its achievements and
failures in fulfilling the objectives of the Constitution in the	context of experience gained, and for future requirements	perceived.
2. After the Constitution came into force, within two years, it	was required to be amended. In the course of his speech on	the Constitution (First Amendment) Bill, 1951, on 2 June
1951 Nehru once again repeated his views as to the need	for the Constitution to be amenable to amendment. On this	occasion, his words were trenchant and unsparing. He said:
“A Constitution which is unchanging and static, it does not	matter how good it is, but as a Constitution it is past its	use. It is in its old age already and gradually approaching
its death. A Constitution to be living must be growing;	must be adaptable; must be flexible; must be	changeable... Therefore, it is a desirable and a good thing
for people to realize that this very fine Constitution that we	have fashioned after years of labour, is good in so far as it	goes, but as society changes as conditions change, we
3. Four years later, as an experienced Prime Minister with	prolonged firsthand knowledge of the efficacy of the	fundamental law of the land, he held the same view.
Speaking on the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 1955	Nehru said:	“After all, the Constitution is meant to facilitate the working
of the Government and the administrative and other	structures of this country. It is meant to be not something	that is static and which has a static form in a changing
world, but something which has something dynamic in it,	which takes cognizance of the dynamic nature of modern	conditions, modern society.”
4. In the years that followed the Fourth Amendment, the	Constitution has been amended 81 times. The Union and	the State Governments and Parliament faced the Supreme
Court over fundamental rights issues: freedom of expression	visa-vis national integrity; personal liberty visa-vis political	stability; special treatment for some segments of society
visa-vis abstract equality for all; property rights vis-a-vis	social revolution needs etc. Questions also arose whether	the power of constitutional amendment was complete,
unrestrained and unlimited and whether there were limits to	the power of judicial review of constitutional amendments.	5. In the period 1950 to 1967, Parliament and most State
Assemblies had preponderant Congress majorities. General	Elections in 1967 were followed by the formation of non-	Congress coalitions in a number of States in the northern
region of the country. Certain issues pertaining to Union-	State relations arose during this period directly from the	functioning of mechanisms and processes under the
Constitution. An Administrative Reforms Commission was	constituted by the Government of India to examine	administrative aspects of Union-State relations.
6. In the period following the fourth General Election, the	phenomenon of unprincipled defections for money or	ministerships etc. came to the fore: legislators changing their
public opinion. Wide-spread concern about the problem was	mirrored in Parliament, and led to a unanimous resolution in	the Lok Sabha on 8 December 1967. The resolution read:
“This House is of opinion that a high-level Committee	consisting of representatives of political parties and	constitutional experts be set up immediately by
Government to consider the problem of legislators	changing their allegiance from one party to another and	their frequent crossing of the floor in all its aspects, and
make recommendations in this regard.”	7. Known subsequently as the Y.B. Chavan Committee, after	the then Union Home Minister who was the Chairman of the
Committee, this body produced a valuable report which	addressed a variety of issues germane to the handling of the	problem of defections which had basic implications with
reference to the working of constitutional machinery and	connected statutory and procedural instrumentalities.	8. The 25th anniversary of the coming into force of the
Constitution of the world’s largest democratic republic	occurred, ironically, in the year in which the Emergency was	clamped on the nation in an atmosphere of burgeoning
national unrest. It was in this context that the first concerted	initiative towards a review and revision of the Constitution	was undertaken in 1975. At the AICC Session in December,

optimally used.

4. The Citizens’ Charters be prepared by every service

providing department / agency to enumerate the

entitlements of the citizens specifically those of the SCs, STs

and other deprived classes.

5. Reservation for SCs, STs and BCs should be brought under

a statute covering all aspects of reservation including setting

up of Arakshan Nyaya Adalats to adjudicate upon all

disputes pertaining to reservation.

6. Residential schools for SCs, STs and BCs should be

established in every district in the country.

7. All tribal areas governed by the Fifth Schedule of the

Constitution should be transferred to the Sixth Schedule.

Other tribal areas should also be brought under the Sixth

Schedule.

8. Special courts exclusively to try offences under the SCs and

STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, should be

established.

9. Prevention of untouchability requires, inter alia, effective

punitive action under the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.

10. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of

Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, should be strictly

enforced.

11. Steps should be taken for improvement of educational

standards as well as for increasing the political

representation of the minority communities.

12. A fully empowered National Authority for the Liberation and

Rehabilitation of bonded labour should be set up. Similar

authorities should also be established at the state level.

13. As regards women, action covering reservation,

development, empowerment, health and protection against

violence should be taken.

10. On Decentralisation (Panchayats and

Municipalities)

1. The Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules of the Constitution

should be restructured in a manner that creates a separate

fiscal domain for panchayats and municipalities.

2. State panchayat council should be established under the

chairmanship of the chief minister.

3. Panchayats and Municipalities should be categorically

declared to be ‘institutions of self-government’ and exclusive

functions be assigned to them. For this purpose, Articles

243-G and 243-W should be suitably amended.

4. The Election Commission of India should have the power to

issue directions to the State Election Commission for the

discharge of its functions. The State Election Commission

should submit its annual or special reports to the Election

Commission of India and to the Governor. This requires the

amendment of Articles 243-K and 243-ZA.

5. Article 243-E should be amended to the effect that a

reasonable opportunity of being heard shall be given to a

Panchayat before it is dissolved.

6. To ensure uniformity in the practice relating to audit of

accounts, the CAG of India should be empowered to

conduct the audit or lay down accounting standards for

Panchayats.

7. Whenever a Municipality is superseded, a report stating the

grounds for such dissolution should be placed before the

State Legislature.

8. All provisions regarding qualifications and disqualifications

for elections to local authorities should be consolidated in a

single law.

9. The functions of delimitation, reservation and rotation of

seats should be vested in a Delimitation Commission and

not in the State Election Commission.

10. The concept of a distinct and separate tax domain for

municipalities should be recognized.

11. On Institutions in North East India

1. Efforts are to be made to give all the States in this region the

opportunities provided under the 73rd and 74th Constitutional

Amendments. However, this should be done with due regard

to the unique political traditions of the region.

2. The subjects given under the Sixth Schedule and those

mentioned in the Eleventh Schedule could be entrusted to

the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs).

3. Traditional forms of governance should be associated with

self-governance because of the present dissatisfaction.

4. A National Immigration Council should be set up to examine

a range of issues including review of the Citizenship Act, the

Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act, the

Foreigners Act and so on.

5. As regards Nagaland, the Naga Councils should be replaced

by elected representatives of various Naga society groups

with an intermediary tier at the district level.

6. As regards Assam, the Sixth Schedule should be extended

to the Bodoland Autonomous Council and other Autonomous

Councils be upgraded to Autonomous Development

Councils.

7. As regards Meghalaya, a tier of village governance should

be created for a village or a group of villages in the

8. As regards Tripura, the changes which may be made in

respect of other Autonomous Councils should also apply in

respect of the Autonomous District Councils.

9. As regards Mizoram, an intermediary elected tier should be

developed at the district level in areas not covered by the

Sixth Schedule.

10. As regards Manipur, the provisions of the Sixth Schedule

should be extended to hill districts of the State.

12. On Electoral Processes

1. Any person charged with any offence punishable with

imprisonment for a maximum term of five years or more,

should be disqualified for being chosen as or for being a

member of Parliament or Legislature of a State.

2. Any person convicted for any heinous crime like murder,

rape, smuggling, dacoity, etc., should be permanently

debarred from contesting for any political office.

3. Criminal cases against politicians pending before Courts

either for trial or in appeal must be disposed of speedily, if

necessary, by appointing Special Courts.

4. The election petitions should also be decided by special

courts. In the alternative, special election benches may be

constituted in the High Courts and earmarked exclusively for

the disposal of election petitions and election disputes.

5. Any system of State funding of elections bears a close

nexus to the regulation of working of political parties by law

and to the creation of a foolproof mechanism under law with

a view to implementing the financial limits strictly. Therefore,

proposals for State funding should be deferred till these

regulatory mechanisms are firmly in position.

6. Candidates should not be allowed to contest election

simultaneously for the same office from more than one

constituency.

7. The election code of conduct should be given the sanctity of

law and its violation should attract penal action.

8. The Commission while recognizing the beneficial potential of

the system of run off contest electing the representative

against the present first-past-the-post system, for a more

representative democracy, recommends that the

Government and the Election Commission of India should

examine this issue of prescribing a minimum of 50 per cent

plus one vote for election in all its aspects.

9. An independent candidate who loses election three times

consecutively should be permanently debarred from

contesting election to the same office.

10. The minimum number of valid votes polled should be

increased to 25 per cent from the current 16.67 per cent as a

condition for the deposit not being forfeited.

11. The issue of eligibility of non-Indian born citizens or those

whose parents or grandparents were citizens of India to hold

high offices in the realm such as President, Vice-President,

Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India should be

examined in depth through a political process after a

national dialogue10 .

12. The Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election

Commissioners should be appointed on the

recommendation of a body consisting of the Prime Minister,

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Leader of the

Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the Speaker of the Lok

Sabha and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Similar procedure should be adopted in the case of

appointment of State Election Commissioners.

13. On Political Parties

1. A comprehensive law regulating the registration and

functioning of political parties or alliances of parties should

be made. The proposed law should-

(a) provide that political party or alliance should keep its

doors open to all citizens irrespective of any distinctions

of caste, community or the like.

(b) make it compulsory for the parties to maintain accounts

of the receipt of funds and expenditure in a systematic

and regular way.

(c) make it compulsory for the political parties requiring their

time of filing their nomination.

(d) provide that no political party should provide ticket to a

candidate if he was convicted by any court for any

criminal offence or if the courts have framed criminal

charges against him.

(e) specifically provide that if any party violates the above

provision , the candidate involved should be liable to be

disqualified and the party deregistered and

derecognized.

2. The Election Commission should progressively increase the

threshold criterion for eligibility for recognition so that the

proliferation of smaller political parties is discouraged.

3. A comprehensive legislation providing for regulation of

contributions to the political parties and towards election

expenses should be enacted by consolidating such laws.

This new law should:

(a) aim at bringing transparency into political funding;

(b) permit corporate donations within higher prescribed

limits;

(c) make donations up to a specified limit tax exempt;

(d) make both donors and donees of political funds

accountable;

(e) provide that audited political party accounts should be

published yearly; and

(f) provide for de-recognition of the party and enforcement

of penalties for filing false election returns.

14. On Anti-Defection Law

The provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution should

be amended to provide the following:

1. All persons defecting (whether individually or in groups) from

the party or the alliance of parties, on whose ticket they had

been elected, must resign from their parliamentary or

assembly seats and must contest fresh elections.

2. The defectors should be debarred to hold any public office of

a minister or any other remunerative political post for at least

the duration of the remaining term of the existing legislature

3. The vote cast by a defector to topple a government should

be treated as invalid.

4. The power to decide questions regarding disqualification on

ground of defection should vest in the Election Commission

instead of in the Speaker / Chairman of the House

concerned.

V. EARLIER EFFORTS TO REVIEW THE

CONSTITUTION

Even before the appointment of this Commission in 2000, certain

attempts were already made to review the working of the

Constitution. The Commission itself has summarized those

attempts in the following 11

way :

1. There was nothing entirely new in the effort at reviewing the

working of our Constitution. The debate had continued right

from the first decade of the life of the Constitution. Also,

every amendment had been an occasion for review. But, in

the half-a-century and more since the Constitution came into

force, whereas as many as eighty-five amendments have

been instituted, there has been (till the setting up of the

National Commission to Review the Working of the

Constitution) no comprehensive and transparent official

exercise to review the working of the Constitution in its

entirety with a view to evaluating its achievements and

failures in fulfilling the objectives of the Constitution in the

context of experience gained, and for future requirements

perceived.

2. After the Constitution came into force, within two years, it

was required to be amended. In the course of his speech on

the Constitution (First Amendment) Bill, 1951, on 2 June

1951 Nehru once again repeated his views as to the need

for the Constitution to be amenable to amendment. On this

occasion, his words were trenchant and unsparing. He said:

“A Constitution which is unchanging and static, it does not

matter how good it is, but as a Constitution it is past its

use. It is in its old age already and gradually approaching

its death. A Constitution to be living must be growing;

must be adaptable; must be flexible; must be

changeable... Therefore, it is a desirable and a good thing

for people to realize that this very fine Constitution that we

have fashioned after years of labour, is good in so far as it

goes, but as society changes as conditions change, we

3. Four years later, as an experienced Prime Minister with

prolonged firsthand knowledge of the efficacy of the

fundamental law of the land, he held the same view.

Speaking on the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Bill, 1955

Nehru said:

“After all, the Constitution is meant to facilitate the working

of the Government and the administrative and other

structures of this country. It is meant to be not something

that is static and which has a static form in a changing

world, but something which has something dynamic in it,

which takes cognizance of the dynamic nature of modern

conditions, modern society.”

4. In the years that followed the Fourth Amendment, the

Constitution has been amended 81 times. The Union and

the State Governments and Parliament faced the Supreme

Court over fundamental rights issues: freedom of expression

visa-vis national integrity; personal liberty visa-vis political

stability; special treatment for some segments of society

visa-vis abstract equality for all; property rights vis-a-vis

social revolution needs etc. Questions also arose whether

the power of constitutional amendment was complete,

unrestrained and unlimited and whether there were limits to

the power of judicial review of constitutional amendments.

5. In the period 1950 to 1967, Parliament and most State

Assemblies had preponderant Congress majorities. General

Elections in 1967 were followed by the formation of non-

Congress coalitions in a number of States in the northern

region of the country. Certain issues pertaining to Union-

State relations arose during this period directly from the

functioning of mechanisms and processes under the

Constitution. An Administrative Reforms Commission was

constituted by the Government of India to examine

administrative aspects of Union-State relations.

6. In the period following the fourth General Election, the

phenomenon of unprincipled defections for money or

ministerships etc. came to the fore: legislators changing their

public opinion. Wide-spread concern about the problem was

mirrored in Parliament, and led to a unanimous resolution in

the Lok Sabha on 8 December 1967. The resolution read:

“This House is of opinion that a high-level Committee

consisting of representatives of political parties and

constitutional experts be set up immediately by

Government to consider the problem of legislators

changing their allegiance from one party to another and

their frequent crossing of the floor in all its aspects, and

make recommendations in this regard.”

7. Known subsequently as the Y.B. Chavan Committee, after

the then Union Home Minister who was the Chairman of the

Committee, this body produced a valuable report which

addressed a variety of issues germane to the handling of the

problem of defections which had basic implications with

reference to the working of constitutional machinery and

connected statutory and procedural instrumentalities.

8. The 25th anniversary of the coming into force of the

Constitution of the world’s largest democratic republic

occurred, ironically, in the year in which the Emergency was

clamped on the nation in an atmosphere of burgeoning

national unrest. It was in this context that the first concerted

initiative towards a review and revision of the Constitution

was undertaken in 1975. At the AICC Session in December,