Why the Constitution is Not Merely a Courtroom Document

EVERY YEAR on August 15, we celebrate the independence from the British Raj by hoisting the national flag, singing songs of freedom and remembering the freedom fighters whose courage and sacrifice made independence a reality. We do something similar for Constitution Day, but instead of the customary song and flag-hoisting, we read the preamble, hold aloft a pocket-sized version of the Constitution, snap a picture and swear by it. We also quote a few pithy sayings from Ambedkar who was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly.

Yet, we rarely read the Constitution itself and even more rarely do we read the Constituent Assembly debates that  based on the Constitution was drafted and eventually it was adopted and enacted. As practising lawyers, we believe this to be a problem, not only for lawyers but for all citizens of this country as celebrating the independence day is equally important as that of celebrating the birth of the Constitution of India. While independence day  marks the liberation of India from colonial  rule,  the coming into force of the Constitution  marks the  advent of freedom for our country. On November 25, 1949, B R Ambedkar very appropriately said in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly that “On 26th January 1950, India will be an independent country.” Both are similar, yet inseparable as one freed us from foreign rule and the other one gave that freedom a meaning for every citizen of the Country. 

What the debates actually show

The popular perception of the Constitution is that it is lawyers’ paradise and primarily used as  a courtroom document; only people trained in law can comprehend and interpret it. Such an understanding of the Constitution is completely erroneous and fallacious. The Constituent Assembly Debates (‘CADs’) educate  us how the framers engaged themselves with the issues faced by people and  the newly emerging Republic. They deliberated upon the crucial issue that the people constitute the source of all power and authority and, among others, discussed threadbare host of  other matters such as the  federal , framework for governance of India, rights of minorities and special safeguards for them, giving constitutional status to several languages , affirmative action,  and rights of various kinds including fundamental rights. The debates on those issues and more importantly on several other provisions of  the Constitution clearly brought out that the framers were far from united in forming a common view point and that the draft Constitution was a by-product of accommodation and reconciliation of diverse opinions.

Dr. Ambedkar’s last address in the Constituent Assembly went beyond mere celebrations of the kind we associate with the Republic Day celebrations, for he warned the Assembly that the political equality guaranteed by the Constitution sharply  stood in contradiction with   the prevailing social and economic inequalities. He pointed out that while political equality had been/could be achieved in India, economic and social inequality stubbornly persisted. He questioned how long democracy in India could survive with such deepening contradictions? He cautioned by saying that “We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.”