INDIAN CONSTITUTION - Supreme Law of Nation.

      Introduction

    The Constitution of India  is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers and duties, government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 444 articles in 24 parts, 12 schedules and 94 amendments, for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation.
It was passed by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, it came into effect on 26 January 1950. 26 January was chosen to commemorate the declaration of independence of 1930. It declares the Union of India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty, and endeavours to promote among them all, fraternity. The words "socialist", "secular", and "integrity" were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment. India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on 26 January each year as Republic Day.After coming into effect, the Constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India.

Constituent Assembly

The Constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by the elected members of the provincial assemblies.Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Sandipkumar Patel, Dr Ambedkar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Nalini Ranjan Ghosh, and Balwant Singh Mehta were some important figures in the Assembly. There were more than 30 members of scheduled classes. Frank Anthony represented the Anglo-Indian community, and the Parsis were represented by H. P. Modi. The Chairman of the Minorities Committee was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, a distinguished Christian who represented all Christians other than Anglo-Indians. Ari Bahadur Gururng represented the Gorkha Community. Prominent jurists like Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, B. R. Ambedkar, Benegal Narsing Rau and K. M. Munshi, Ganesh Mavlankar were also members of the Assembly. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur were important women members. The first president of the Constituent Assembly was Dr Sachidanand Sinha. Later, Rajendra Prasad was elected president of the Constituent Assembly.The members of the Constituent Assembly met for the first time in 1946 on 9 December.

Drafting

In the 14 August 1947 meeting of the Assembly, a proposal for forming various committees was presented. Such committees included a Committee on Fundamental Rights, the Union Powers Committee and Union Constitution Committee. On 29 August 1947, the Drafting Committee was appointed, with Dr Ambedkar as the Chairman along with six other members. A Draft Constitution was prepared by the committee and submitted to the Assembly on 4 November 1947.
The architects of India’s constitution, though drawing on many external sources, were most heavily influenced by the British model of parliamentary democracy. In addition, a number of principles were adopted from the Constitution of the United States of America, including the separation of powers among the major branches of government, the establishment of a supreme court, and the adoption, albeit in modified form, of a federal structure (a constitutional division of power between the Union (central) government and state governments)
The Assembly met in sessions open to the public, for 166 days, spread over a period of 2 years, 11 months and 18 days before adopting the Constitution.After many deliberations and some modifications, the 308 members of the Assembly signed two copies of the document (one each in Hindi and English) on 24 January 1950. The original Constitution of India is hand-written with beautiful calligraphy, each page beautified and decorated by artists from Santiniketan including Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and others. Two days later, on 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India became the law of all the States and territories of India.
The Constitution has undergone many amendments since its enactment.

 Structure

The Constitution, in its current form (March 2011), consists of a preamble, 24 parts containing 450 articles, 12 schedules, 2 appendices and 114 amendments to date. Although it is federal in nature it also has a strong unitary bias.

Parts

The individual Articles of the Constitution are grouped together into the following Parts:

Preamble Part I - Union and its Territory Part II - Citizenship. Part III - Fundamental Rights Part IV- Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties. Part V - The Union. Part VI - The States. Part VII - States in the B part of the First schedule(Repealed). Part VIII[17] - The Union Territories Part IX- Panchayat system and Municipalities. Part X - The scheduled and Tribal Areas Part XI - Relations between the Union and the States.

Part XII - Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits Part XIII - Trade and Commerce within the territory of India Part XIV - Services Under the Union, the States and Tribunals Part XV - Elections Part XVI - Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes. Part XVII - Languages Part XVIII - Emergency Provisions Part XIX - Miscellaneous Part XX - Amendment of the Constitution Part XXI - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions Part XXII - Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals

Schedules

Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorize and tabulate bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government.

• First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4)- This lists the states and territories of India, lists any changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change.
• Second Schedule (Articles 59, 65, 75, 97, 125, 148, 158, 164, 186 and 221)- – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
• Third Schedule (Articles 75, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219)—Forms of Oaths  – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges.
• Fourth Schedule (Articles 4 and 80)  – This details the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory.
• Fifth Schedule (Article 244)  – This provides for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas^{[Note 1]} and Scheduled Tribes (areas and tribes needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions).
• Sixth Schedule (Articles 244 and 275)— Provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
• Seventh Schedule (Article 246)—The union (central government), state, and concurrent lists of responsibilities.
• Eighth Schedule (Articles 344 and 351)—The official languages.
• Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) - Articles mentioned here are immune from judicial review.
• Tenth Schedule (Articles 102 and 191)—"Anti-defection" provisions for Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures.
• Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-G)—Panchayat Raj (rural local government).
• Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W)—Municipalities (urban local government).System of government. 

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee.

The basic form of the Union Government envisaged in the Constitution is as follows,

“

A democratic executive must satisfy three conditions: 1. It must be a stable executive, and 2. It must be a responsible executive. 3. It must be impartial to all religion, caste and community. Unfortunately, it has not been possible so far to devise a system which can ensure both conditions in equal degree. ..... The daily assessment of responsibility, which is not available in the American system is, it is felt, far more effective than the periodic assessment and far more necessary in a country like India. The Draft Constitution in recommending the parliamentary system of Executive has preferred more responsibility to stability

.”

Federal Structure

The Constitution provides for distribution of powers between the Union and the States. It enumerates the powers of the Parliament and State Legislatures in three lists, namely Union list, State list and Concurrent list. Subjects like national defence, foreign policy, issuance of currency are reserved to the Union list. Public order, local governments, certain taxes are examples of subjects of the State List, on which the Parliament has no power to enact laws in those regards, barring exceptional conditions. Education, transportation, criminal law are a few subjects of the Concurrent list, where both the State Legislature as well as the Parliament have powers to enact laws. The residuary powers are vested with the Union.
The upper house of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, which consists of representatives of States, is also an example of the federal nature of the government.

 Parliamentary Democracy

The President of India is elected by the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies, and not directly by the people. The President is the head of state, and all the business of the Executive and Laws enacted by the Parliament are in his/her name. However, these powers are only nominal, and the President must act only according to the advice of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.
The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers exercise their offices only as long as they enjoy a majority support in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, which consists of members directly elected by the people. The ministers are answerable to both the houses of the Parliament. Also, the Ministers must themselves be elected members of either house of the Parliament. Thus, the Parliament exercises control over the Executive.
A similar structure is present in States, where the directly elected Legislative Assembly enjoys control over the Chief Minister and the State Council of Ministers.

 Independent Judiciary

The Judiciary of India is free of control from either the executive or the Parliament. The judiciary acts as an interpreter of the constitution, and as an intermediary in case of disputes between two States, or between a State and the Union. An act passed by the Parliament or a Legislative Assembly is subject to judicial review, and can be declared unconstitutional by the judiciary if it feels that the act violates the provisions of the Constitution.

Changing the constitution

Amendments to the Constitution are made by the Parliament, the procedure for which is laid out in Article 368. An amendment bill must be passed by both the Houses of the Parliament by a two-thirds majority and voting.In addition to this, certain amendments which pertain to the federal nature of the Constitution must be ratified by a majority of state legislatures.
As of September 2010, there have been 108 amendment bills presented in the Parliament, out of which 94 have been passed to become Amendment Acts.Most of these amendments address issues dealt with by statute in other democracies. However, the Constitution is so specific in spelling out government powers that many of these issues must be addressed by constitutional amendment. As a result, the document is amended roughly twice a year.
The Supreme Court has ruled in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala case that not every constitutional amendment is permissible, the amendment must respect the "basic structure" of the constitution, which is immutable.
In 2000 the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was setup to look into updating the constitution.

T.Kallupatti my native

                                                        T.KALLUPATTI

My Native Place

Ancient History and Archaelogical Findings

Archaeological excavations has confirmed about Iron Age Historical remains in T.Kallupatti. The findings where from Upper Gundar Basin. The early history can be dated back to 5th Century A.D. T.Kallupatti and Chinnakattalai are the few places in South India with Iron Age historical remains of Copper and Gold .The findings were reported by the Journal for South Asian studies.^[1] The Archaealogical Survey of India excavated in 1977 . Its documented in the book Distinctive beads in ancient India by Maurya Jyotsna.^[2]

Demographics

As of 2001^[update] India census,^[3] T.Kallupatti had a population of 10,500*. Males constitute 51% of population and females 49%. T.Kallupatti has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 75%, and female literacy is 64%. In T.Kallupatti, 11% of population are under 6 years of age. Floating population is high for a rural town at 25000 ^[4]

Geography

T.Kallupatti is at the Crossroads of Madurai to Rajapalayam and Virudhunagar to Theni Highways making it a rural hub.Western Ghats come on the western, north eastern and south west side of the town. The Town has a predominantly cooler temperature than Madurai city and other eastern areas due to proximity to the Western Ghats. ^[5]

Destinations from Madurai
	Western Ghats	Usilampatti	Madurai
	Peraiyur		Virudhunagar
		T.Kallupatti
	Western Ghats	Rajapalayam	Sivakasi

Community and culture

Town with Initials , the concept of Mother Village

The town has an initial similar to a person and this is actually a common thing seen in Southern Tamilnadu. The Initial for the town is the Name of the Mother Village from which it derives its existence. Its as similar to the relation between Mother and Children. This actually had been the original Tamil culture for years. Here T.Kallupatti's Mother village is Devankurichi(spelled as Thevankurichi) a small village on the road towards Peraiyur. The Devankurichi hill is a symbol of spirituality as one can see it while driving closer to T.Kallupatti. Many people throng the Agneeswaran Temple of Devankurichi for doing the last rites of those who are dead and so its equated to Kasi.^[6]

Community

T.Kallupatti is one of the areas of TamilNadu having a significant number of Telugu speaking people who had migrated during the Vijayanagara Rule. The major communities are, Kammavar Nayudu, Ganjam Reddy. Tamil communities like Maravar(Thevar sect), Brahmins form the next significant group of the town. Dalits of the area are well educated and settled except for a smaller group. Significance identities of this historical place are Ealoor(7 villages) Muthalamman Temple, Devankurichi Temple, Gandhinikatan Ashram, Teachers' training school, Govt hospitals, etc.,

See also: Kamma_(caste)

See also: Reddiar

• Ugadi is celebrated with same fanfare like other Tamil festivals and Telugu communities have local deities shared with Tamil communities.

Temples and festivals

Madurai District has the endless list of Towns with unique specialities and T.Kallupatti is not far behind in that.

• Muthalamman (Women Goddess) Temple Festival is a famous Temple Festival celebrated between 7 villages around T.Kallupatti.^[7] It is one of the rare festivals which doesn't have any Caste issues and everyone come together to help and celebrate. This is a major shift from the caste related violences during Temple festivals in Tamilnadu and Southern districts in particular. The festival involves each of the 7 villages preparing their own Sapparam for their goddess.Vannivelampatti comes closer to compete with T.Kallupatti Sapparam in terms of height. The festival comes a few days before Diwali.
• Mariamman Temple Festival is a yearly festival involving Tamil traditions. Women take Mulaipari during the festival.^[8][9]
• Solapatti Karuppaswamy Temple - Telugu and Tamil communities do offerings on a regular basis to the Karuppaswamy temple.

Karaikeni Padukalam

Karaikeni is a small village where the Padukalam is celebrated where many villages come together to have different war like activities. The history goes back 500 years when Karaikeni ruler Arasuthevar decided to resolve a dispute between 2 other small rulers. The decision was to contest a war to decide the winner. 1 of the ruler and his army was destroyed but one warrior escapes. His descendants come together every 2 years to celebrate this festival. Now the festival involves a fight between the groups in typical Tamil tradition involving Silambu.^[10][11]

Languages

• Telugu ( Spoken by Nayakars and Reddys. Telugu spoken here has some Tamil words.).
• Tamil

Gandhiniketan Ashram

The major place to visit in T.Kallupatti is the Gandhiniketan Ashram. When one travels from Madurai in Tamilnadu along the highway leading to Coutrallam the famous waterfalls, what comes strikingly into view at the 40th kilometre is the Gandhi Niketan Ashram- one of the few surviving Gandhian Institutions in India, still vibrant with Gandhian thoughts and ideals. On entering the campus of this institution located in a sprawling 40 acres of land one can feel the peace and tranquility that pervades the place.

Formation

Gandhi Niketan Ashram which has a long history and rich tradition behind it is the brain child of Freedom fighter Mr. G. Venkatachalapathy ("The Architect of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Movement in Tamil Nadu") and was started it in 1940 to help create an independent India and reconstructing Rural India as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi.

Post independence

After India attained independence in 1947, the Gandhi Niketan Ashram was involved in areas like community development, panchayati raj, and khadi and village industries. Development officials and activists from all over India were trained here to work at the grassroots. The Ashram also played a key role in the Bhoodan movement spearheaded by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Nobel laureate and Civil rights leader of America who visited the founder at Madras twice and got a first hand account of the experiences of Venkatachalapathy in organizing Satyagraha and constructive programmes. E. F. Schumacher, one of the founders of the Green Movement in the west and renowned author of the book “Small is Beautiful” visited the Ashram in 1962 and obtained valubable insights into the areas of appropriate technology of benefit to the rural poor. Schumacher was later seen as an adviser for the Indian planning commission in the early 70s. Late Gandhian Leaders like Thiru Muniyandi Ayya, Thiru Palraj made sure the efforts were taken through the last 30–40 years. Students still wear Khadi dress as the uniform and do all work within school and maintain them without any caste difference. ^[12]

Objectives

• To operationalise the Gandhian vision of Gram Swaraj by promoting constructive training, demonstration and development programmes
• To enable the villagers to produce their own clothing by spinning and weaving with hand spun yarn
• To promote an appropriate educational system suited to rural realities based on the Gandhian concept of Basic Education
• To eradicate the evil of untouchability and to propagate Adult Literacy
• To train the rural people to keep their villages clean.
• To improve agricultural practices and to teach villagers to produce nutritive food grains
• To educate people on the dangers of alcoholism and wean them away from liquor
• To achieve all of the above to create a village reconstruction army

e-Learning at Gandhiniketan Ashram

An ambitious programme to introduce computer-aided learning and interactive curriculum support in 1,000 rural schools in the country had been launched here. The e-learning/digital content programme was launched by former President A P J Abdul Kalam at the Gandhi Niketan Ashram School in 2008. The initiative helps students clarify their doubts sitting in their class. Schools are given infrastructure required for IT-based education which would have animation and interactive tools for various projects at the high/higher secondary school level. ^[13]

Public administration and rural development

See also: Madurai District

T.Kallupatti Block comprises about 42 Villages and is one of the effectively administered rural blocks of the state. There is 100% Electricity coverage in all villages. Protected Water Supply is available in all villages under the Block. Male to Female Ratio is 1000-1001 which shows a major shift from Usilampatti Block ( just 20 km far ) where female infanticide is high.44% of Women are employed which provides a diverse workforce. 65% depend on Agriculture. MicroFinance and Illegal Money Lending is very less in the Block as there are 15 Agriculture Cooperative Banks. All 42 Villages are Panchayats and 39 of the 42 are Revenue Villages. There are 88 Child Welfare Centres with most of them Concentrated in the T.Kallupatti Town and are well connected through village Roads. Although Peraiyur is the Taluk the Central Location of T.Kallupatti and its being on the NH 208 provided it with a statistical advantage in Development and so Peraiyur comes under T.Kallupatti block as a revenue firka.

T.Kallupatti Block

Density of Population per km2	319
Percentage of Urban Population to total Population	22.69
Number of female per 1000 males	1001
Percentage of workers to total population	51.12
Percentage of Female workers to total workers	44.24
Percentage of Agricultural workers to total workers	67.46
Percentage of gross cropped area to net area sown	99.54
Bovine population per km2	50.23
Percentage of villages electrified	100%
Percentage of Villages covered by prot. water supply	100%
No. of Police Stations	3
No. of Noon Meal Centre	88

^[14]

Sustainable development

At T. Kallupatti, 35 street lights, seven sodium vapour lamps at a bus stand and a motor pumpset of 7.5 horsepower used for an overhead tank are powered by a biomass gasifier unit. The unit of 12 KVA (kilovolt ampere) generates 220 units a day at a mere Rs.500. The bus stand and a nearby park are lit up round the clock, even in times of load shedding.

Biomass power generation method

The unit is fuelled completely by Julia Flora, a plant known as Seemakaruvellai (Thorny tree). A feasibility study for the project showed that the plant was available in abundance in the locality. This was critical to ensure long-term sustainability of the project. Self-help groups supply the wood, which is dried in the sun for 10 days and then chopped into pieces. The progress of the unit is closely monitored. The Highlights of biomass power generation method include

• Reduction in the emission of carbon and soil erosion.
• Provides a means of restoring degraded land.
• Raw materials, wood, bagasse, rice husk and other agricultural residues/wastes could be used to generate heat and electricity for agricultural and industrial processes.
• Short-rotation wood species, including casuarina, are used to fuel the biomass units.
• By harvesting crop in rotation, a standing plantation of 250 hectares will grow 10,000 tonnes of casuarina, which is sufficient to generate 1 megawatt.
• A 2,500-hectare casuarina energy plantation could support a plant of 10-12 MW.

 Police station

T.Kallupatti police station is grouped as mother villages and as Hamlets under each mother village. There are 15 mother villages. ^[16]

Transportation

By road

The Town is well connected by National Highway 208 (India) till Thirumangalam where it joins with National Highway 7 (India) to Madurai in the North. NH208 runs via Rajapalayam till Kollam(Kerala) on the south. All buses to Rajapalayam and Tenkasi run through the town and is the route for Srivilliputhur, Courtallam, Ayyappa Temple in Pamba and southern Kerala Towns including Trivandrum via Shencottah.^[17]

By rail

Nearest Railway Stations are Thirumangalam(18 km) and Virudhunagar(12 km)

 Economy

Agriculture is the highest grosser in and around T.Kallupatti. Cucumber cultivation yields more revenue along with other seasonal crops. Cucumber sales can be seen when vehicles cross the town and stop near the Bus Station.^[18] Rice is cultivated in the Western side of the Town and the block. There is also high level of black soil in the area leading to Groundnut cultivation.

Institute for Village Industries

Dr. J.C. Kumarappa Institute of Rural Technology and Development, an institutional training centre of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) at T. Kallupatti provides Six-month training in footwear and leather goods manufacturing, five-month training in tailoring and embroidery, four-month training in servicing of electronics and electrical appliances, three-month training in welding and fabrication, fancy leather and rexin goods making, motor winding, cutting and tailoring, two-month training in exercise book manufacturing, toilet and laundry soap making, handmade paper conversion (notebooks, file, cover, carry bag, etc.), fruits and vegetable processing, one-month training in spices and masala making, detergent cake making, two-week training in screen printing, week-long training in cleaning powder making, detergent powder, fruit jam, squash and pickles making, and four-day training in bio manure and vermin-compost. ^[19]

Recent industrialisation

Textile mills, handlooms and factories have come around T.Kallupatti leading to larger number of jobs for men and women. This is due to the cheap labour around the town. Textile Mills from Rajapalayam have opened their units in the vicinity. This has led to jobs for women and has accounted more than 40% jobs for women. Major workforce work in

• M/s Auro Mira Bio Energy Madurai Limited (AMBEML) on the road to Rajapalayam.
• Textile Mills on the Road towards Madurai.
• Paramount Textiles.
• Small-Scale Industrial units in Gandhi Niketan, including leather factories.
• Khadi Units.

Banking

• Indian Overseas Bank covers most of the customers and nearby villages.^[21]
• 15 Primary Agricultural Co-operative Banks.
• 2 Scheduled Banks
• 5 Nationalised Banks

^[22]

Education

Higher secondary schools

• Gandhi Niketan Higher Secondary School.(other than local students almost 60% population from the 40 villages around T.Kallupatti Study here)
• GOVT. Higher Secondary School.
• M.S.R. Matriculation Higher Secondary School - run by Dr.R.Muthukrishan.

^[23]

Primary and middle schools

• Lakshmanan Memorial English School
• Jaya Nursery English School.
• Gandhinikethan Primary School

Colleges

• DIET - Government Teacher Training College
• MSR Teacher Training Centre
• Nagalakshmi Ammal Arts and Science College

MY COLLAGE

 

Now Dr.Ambedkar govt law collage formerly known as madras law collage. It started its academic duty from 1893 and now its going to complete its 120th year in legal education field. the building was designed by Mr.peter a french engineer and constructed by british. its an master piece example of Indo-saracenic architecture.

More than 100 years she is serving legal education and she can go on for centuries... its my little contribution for her pride...