The Constitution Day, also known as ‘Samvidhan Divas’, is annually observed across India on 26th November to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26th November 1949.
- The Constitution day aims to promote constitutional values among the citizens of India and honour the contribution of the Founding Fathers of the Indian Constitution.
- The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment(MSJE) is the Nodal agency for the celebrations organised as part of Constitution Day.
26th November 2022 marks the 73rd anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of India.
The theme of Constitution Day 2022 is “India – the Mother of Democracy / भारतलोकतन्त्रकीजननी”
Background:
i.On 19th November 2015, The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment notified the decision of the Indian government to observe the 26th November of every year as ‘Constitution Day’.
ii.This announcement was made as a part of the year-long celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, father of the Constitution.
- The first-ever Constitution Day was celebrated on 26th November 2015.
History:
i.The Constituent Assembly of India met for the first time and Dr Sachchidananda Sinha was appointed as the first president of the Constituent Assembly on 9th December 1946.
ii.On 29th August 1947, a Drafting Committee was constituted to prepare a Draft Constitution under the chairmanship of Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
iii.On 26th November 1949, the Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly.
iv.On 24th January 1950, 308 members of the Assembly signed the two handwritten copies of the document, one in Hindi and one in English. The Constitution of India came into force on 26th January 1950, which is annually celebrated as the Republic Day of India.
Events 2022:
As a part of the observance of Constitution Day 2022, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has revamped and updated two digital portals:
- https://readpreamble.nic.in/ – A portal for reading Preamble to the Constitution in English and 22 other languages mentioned under the 8th Schedule to the Constitution.
- https://constitutionquiz.nic.in/ – A portal for “Online Quiz on the Constitution of India” precisely for Constitution Day 2022.
The Quiz portal, available in both Hindi and English languages, aims to popularise the basic values/ethos of the Indian constitution.
On 25th November 2022, Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, virtually launched the updated portals.
The Preamble to the Constitution of India:
i.The Preamble is a brief statement which records the aims and aspirations of the people of India.
ii.The preamble has been amended only once. On 18th December 1976, through the 42nd Amendment, the words “socialist” and “secular” were added between the words “Sovereign” and “democratic” and the words “unity of the Nation” were changed to “unity and integrity of the Nation”.
PM Modi Participated in Constitution Day celebrations in Supreme Court:
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi participated in the Constitution Day celebrations organised in the Supreme Court of India.
He launched various new initiatives like Virtual Justice Clock, JustIS mobile App 2.0, Digital court and S3WaaS Websites under the e-court project, an effort to provide services to litigants, lawyers and the judiciary through ICT enablement of courts.
Virtual Justice Clock:
This is an initiative to exhibit vital statistics of the justice delivery system at the Court level that provides details of the cases instituted, cases disposed and pendency of cases on a day/week/month basis.
This can be accessed through District Court’s website.
JustIS Mobile App 2.0:
It is a tool for judicial officers for effective court and case management by monitoring pendency and disposal for their court and also for individual judges working under them.
The app is also available for the High Court and Supreme Court Judges who monitors the pendency and disposal of all the States and Districts under their jurisdiction.
Digital court:
An initiative to make the court records available to the judge in digitised form to enable the transition to Paperless Courts.
S3WaaS Websites:
The S3WaaS Websites, a multilingual, citizen-friendly and divyang-friendly website, is a framework to generate, configure, deploy and manage websites for publishing specified information and services related to district judiciary.
It is a cloud service developed for government entities to generate Secure, Scalable & Sugamya (Accessible) websites.
Facts about the Constitution of India:
i.The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution in the world, it took around 2 years, 11 months, and 17 days to complete the Constitution.
ii.It had 395 Articles, 22 Parts and 8 Schedules at the time of its commencement.
iii.The Constitution of India was not typeset or printed but was handwritten and calligraphic in both English and Hindi. It had 90,000 words.
iv.The Constitution of India was entirely handcrafted by the artists of Shantiniketan under the guidance of Acharya Nandalal Bose. The calligraphy texts were done by Prem Behari Narain Raizada in Delhi.
About the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment(MSJE):
Union Minister– Dr Virendra Kumar(Constituency- Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh)
Minister of State– A. Narayanaswamy; Pratima Bhoumik; Ramdas Athawale
