Indian Polity / Making of the Constitution
|
|
|
There always remains a confusion as to how many Parts, Articles and Schedules are there in Indian constitution as the highest number given to the Parts and Articles are fixed. The original Indian Constitution had 22 Parts, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules. The number of Parts, Articles and Schedules in Indian Constitution at present are 25, 448 and 12 respectively.
Parts and Articles that are added newly through Constitutional amendments, will be given the numbers like Part IVA, Part IXA, Article 21A, Article 31B, etc. So, the new Part that is added to the 22 parts of Indian Constitution should not be XXIII and the new Article that is added to the 395 articles of Indian Constitution should not be 396. But, the highest number given to the Schedules can be increased.
The Constitution of India is a large document that has rules and regulations about different subjects in the form of Articles and Schedules. In our Constitution, the Articles are the individual, numbered sections explaining the basic rules about how the government is to be run, rights and duties of citizens, structure of the governments at various levels, etc. and these Articles are grouped together into different Parts.
The 25 Parts and all Articles of Indian Constitution are briefly described below:
| PART No. | Articles | Contents of the PART |
|---|---|---|
| PART I | 1 - 4 | Creation, Abolition, Alteration, Reorganization of states |
| PART II | 5 - 11 | Citizenship |
| PART III | 12 - 35 | Fundamental Rights |
| PART IV | 36 - 51 | Directive Principles of State Policy |
| PART IVA | 51A | Fundamental Duties |
| PART V | 52 - 151 | Union Government (it is the largest PART of the Constitution) |
| PART VI | 152 - 237 | State Government |
| PART VII | 238 | Deleted |
| PART VIII | 239 - 242 | Union Territories |
| PART IX | 243 - 243O | Structure of Panchayats |
| PART IXA | 243P - 243ZG | Structure of Nagar Palikas |
| PART X | 244 - 244A | Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes |
| PART XI | 245 - 263 | Center - state relations (especially legislative and administrative) |
| PART XII | 264 - 300A | Property, Finance and other related matters |
| PART XIII | 301 - 307 | Trade, Commerce and Intercourse |
| PART XIV | 308 - 323 | Services of Central Government and State Governments |
| PART XIVA | 323 - 323A | Tribunals |
| PART XV | 324 - 329A | Elections |
| PART XVI | 330 - 342 | Special protection and measures for SC, ST and Anglo-Indians |
| PART XVII | 343 - 351 | Languages |
| PART XVIII | 352 - 360 | Emergency Provisions |
| PART XIX | 361 - 367 | Certain Exceptions under Constitution |
| PART XX | 368 | Amendment of the Constitution |
| PART XXI | 369 - 392 | Temporary and transitional provisions for certain states including Jammu and Kashmir |
| PART XXII | 393 - 395 | Deletions and Translation of Constitution into Hindi |
The Schedules of Indian Constitution are a kind tabular forms of information that are not included in the Articles. They provide detailed information about legislative, administrative and technical matters so that the main Articles of the Constitution will not get too complicated.
The 12 Schedules of Indian Constitution are briefly described below:
| Schedule No. | Contents of the Schedule |
|---|---|
| 1 | Names of the states and union territories |
| 2 | Salaries of the President, Vice-President and other Constitutional officers |
| 3 | Different Forms of Oath* |
| 4 | Representation to the states in Rajya Sabha |
| 5 | Special protection for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Areas |
| 6 | Special protection for Tribal people and Tribal Areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram |
| 7 | Division of powers between the Center and states |
| 8 | Official Languages** |
| 9 | Land reforms laws made by various states (added in 1951 by 1st Amendment of Indian constitution) |
| 10 | Anti-defections (added in 1985 by 52nd Amendment of Indian constitution) |
| 11 | Functions of Panchayats (added in 1992 by 73rd Amendment of Indian constitution) |
| 12 | Functions of Nagar Palikas (added in 1992 by 74th Amendment of Indian constitution) |