Evaluating the Founding Text: The Venkatachaliah Commission's Review of India's Constitution

National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC)

The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was constituted by a Government of India resolution issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice on 22 February 2000. The Commission comprised 11 members and was chaired by Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India.

Although given an initial one-year deadline, the Commission received three extensions and eventually submitted its report on 31 March 2002. The report runs to 1,979 pages in two volumes: Volume I contains the recommendations; Volume II (in three books) contains consultation papers, background papers, details of deliberations, and the report of its drafting committee.

Exam Anchor: NCRWC was set up in 2000, chaired by a former CJI, and submitted its report in 2002.

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The Commission's mandate was to evaluate, drawing on five decades of constitutional experience, whether the existing provisions adequately served the goals of efficient governance and socio-economic development in contemporary India - and to suggest amendments where necessary.

Two critical constraints bounded this mandate:

1. All recommendations had to remain within the framework of parliamentary democracy.
2. No recommendation could disturb the basic structure of the Constitution.

The Commission was explicit that its function was purely recommendatory and advisory - it was reviewing the working of the Constitution, not rewriting it. Parliament retained absolute authority to accept or reject any recommendation.

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The Commission had no pre-set agenda. On its own initiative, it identified eleven thematic areas for examination:

1. Strengthening institutions of parliamentary democracy (Legislature, Executive, Judiciary)
2. Electoral reforms and standards in political life
3. Pace of socio-economic change and development
4. Literacy, employment generation, social security, and poverty alleviation
5. Union-State relations
6. Decentralisation and Panchayati Raj empowerment
7. Enlargement of Fundamental Rights
8. Making Fundamental Duties operational
9. Effectuation of Directive Principles and Preambular objectives
10. Legal control of fiscal and monetary policies; public audit mechanisms
11. Administrative systems and standards in public life

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The Commission undertook a systematic assessment of India's achievements and failures across political, economic, social, administrative, gender, and judicial domains.

Political Achievements

• India stabilised as a working federal polity; the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments broadened the democratic base through local self-governance.
• General Elections have been conducted regularly with orderly and peaceful transfers of power.
• Educational qualifications of legislators improved; more members from historically backward communities entered Parliament and state legislatures.

Economic Achievements

Social Achievements

• Infant mortality dropped from 146 to 72 per 1,000 births between 1950 and 1998.
• Life expectancy at birth rose from 32 years (1950-51) to 63 years (2000).
• Kerala's child life expectancy surpassed that of children born in Washington D.C.; women's life expectancy in Kerala reached 75 years.
• Primary Health Centres grew from 725 (1951) to over 1,50,000 (1995).
• Primary schools increased from 2,10,000 (1951) to 5,90,000 (1995); 95% of villages have a school within 1 km.

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Political Failures

• Criminalisation of politics: Electoral processes failed to screen out criminal and anti-social elements, who have come to dominate legislative chambers.
• Democracy is not inclusive or representative: women and diverse communities remain structurally underrepresented.
• Election costs and electoral corruption have devastated political standards and diverted resources from public welfare.
• Political parties handle large pools of unaccounted funds; no law governs party registration, inner-party democracy, or fund transparency.
• The constitutional ideal of Fraternity (enshrined in the Preamble) remains unrealised; social fragmentation has deepened since independence.
• A growing criminal-politician-bureaucratic nexus has corroded institutional integrity.

Economic Failures

• The top income quintile controls 85% of national income; the bottom quintile commands only 1.5%; the second, third and fourth quintiles hold 8%, 3.5%, and 2% respectively.
• 260 million people remain below the poverty line.

Social Failures

• Maternal mortality stood at 407 per 1,00,000 live births (1998) - over 100 times Western levels.
• 53% of children under five (~60 million) are malnourished - nearly twice the rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 33% of babies are born with low birth weight (vs. 9% in China/South Korea, 6% in Thailand).
• Child immunisation (12-23 months) reached only 42% nationally; Bihar recorded 11%, Rajasthan 17%.
• Per capita cereal consumption improved marginally (400g to 440g/day over 50 years), but per capita pulse intake declined.
• Welfare measures for 270 million SCs and STs have not been implemented sincerely.
• Population control failed in northern states; UP's fertility rate is roughly a century behind Kerala.

Administrative Failures

• Corruption, insensitivity and inefficiency of the bureaucracy have spawned parallel economies and parallel governments.
• Article 311 has been routinely misused by dishonest officials to shield themselves from accountability.
• Pervasive non-accountability has eroded public faith in state institutions.

Gender Justice Failures

• A woman in Kerala lives 18 years longer than one in Madhya Pradesh - a stark regional disparity.
• India has only 933 women per 1,000 men - the "missing women" phenomenon - a marker of systemic discrimination.
• Women comprise only 4.9% of public service personnel.
• Lok Sabha representation: 22 of 499 seats (4.41%) in 1952; 49 of 544 seats (9.02%) in 1991.
• Between 1995-2000, only 15 of 503 High Court judges were women.

Judicial Failures

• Chronic delays, prohibitive costs, and uncertain processes have left citizens without timely justice.
• The civil and criminal trial systems have "utterly broken down" by the Commission's assessment.
• Citizens are increasingly pushed toward extra-legal remedies.

Overall Verdict: The Commission concluded that fifty years of constitutional working amount to a saga of missed opportunities, with failures outweighing achievements on aggregate.

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The Commission catalogued 18 critical areas of concern, the most exam-relevant being:

• Governance deficit: Public servants have ceased to behave as servants of the people; individual dignity enshrined in the Constitution remains an unfulfilled promise.
• Fiscal crisis: Revenue deficit grew from Rs. 2 crore (1947) to Rs. 88,937 crore (1997-98) to Rs. 1,16,000 crore / 4.8% of GDP (2001-02). India risked sliding into a debt-trap.
• Political criminalisation: The politician-criminal-bureaucratic nexus had reached unprecedented levels.
• Representative deficit: The 13th Lok Sabha represented only 27.9% of the total electorate; the UP legislature represented only 22.2%.
• Political instability: Only four Prime Ministers governed for 40 of the first 54 years; one party held power for 45 years. But after 1989, five General Elections were held in rapid succession - at enormous economic and administrative cost.
• Security vacuum: Early warning mechanisms for social unrest are absent; disaster management capacity is wholly inadequate.
• Judicial crisis: Criminal justice is on the verge of collapse; delays and litigation costs are proverbial.
• Child welfare: 380 million children below 14 years; 96.4% of primary education budget goes to salaries alone, leaving almost nothing for quality or infrastructure.
• Communal violence: Inter-group riots cannot be treated as mere law-and-order problems; they reflect collective behavioural disorders requiring systemic legal and administrative responses.

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The Commission made 249 recommendations in total:

• 58 require constitutional amendments
• 86 require legislative action
• 105 can be implemented through executive action

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1. Fundamental Rights

• Extend anti-discrimination provisions (Articles 15 and 16) to cover ethnic/social origin, political opinion, property and birth.
• Explicitly expand Article 19 to include press freedom and the right to seek, receive and impart information.
• New Fundamental Rights proposed:
  • Right against torture, cruelty and inhuman treatment
  • Right to compensation for illegal deprivation of life or liberty
  • Right to leave and return to India
  • Right to privacy and family life
  • Right to rural wage employment for a minimum of 80 days per year
  • Right to access courts and tribunals and speedy justice
  • Right to equal justice and free legal aid (currently a Directive Principle under Article 39-A)
  • Children's right to care, assistance and protection
  • Right to safe drinking water, pollution prevention and ecological conservation
• Article 21-A (Right to Education): Extend free education to age 18 for girls, SCs and STs (general provision remains up to age 14).
• Preventive Detention (Article 22): Maximum period limited to 6 months; advisory board to comprise a chairman and two members - all serving High Court judges.
• Article 25: Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism to be treated as independent religions, not subsumed under the definition of 'Hindu'.
• Ninth Schedule: Judicial immunity restricted to laws dealing with (i) agrarian reforms, (ii) reservations, and (iii) implementation of Article 39(b)/(c).
• During national emergency, Articles 17, 23, 24, 25 and 32 should also be insulated from suspension (in addition to existing protection for Articles 20 and 21).

2. Right to Property (Article 300-A)

• Acquisition permissible only by authority of law and only for a public purpose.
• Tribal lands (SCs/STs) - agricultural, forest, or homestead - cannot be acquired without a suitable rehabilitation scheme implemented before possession.

3. Directive Principles

• Rename Part IV heading to include the word "Action".
• Add a Directive Principle on population control.
• Establish a National Education Commission every five years.
• Create an Inter-Faith Commission for promoting religious harmony.
• Set up a high-status body to monitor implementation of Directive Principles.

4. Fundamental Duties

• Implement the Justice Verma Committee recommendations on operationalising duties.
• Three new duties proposed:
  1. Duty to vote, participate in democracy, and pay taxes.
  2. Foster family values, responsible parenthood and children's moral/physical well-being.
  3. Industrial organisations to provide education to employees' children.

5. Parliament and State Legislatures

• Define and delimit legislative privileges; amend Article 105 to clarify that immunity does not extend to corrupt acts in connection with parliamentary duties.
• Retain domiciliary requirement for Rajya Sabha candidates to preserve its federal character.
• Discontinue the MP Local Area Development Scheme.
• Minimum sitting days: Lok Sabha 120 days, Rajya Sabha 100 days, larger state legislatures 90 days, smaller ones (below 70 members) 50 days.
• Establish a Standing Constitution Committee for advance scrutiny of constitutional amendment proposals.
• Institute a Parliamentary Ombudsman for public accountability of legislators.

6. Executive and Administration

• In a hung Parliament: Lok Sabha elects its leader; the President appoints that person as Prime Minister.
• Constructive vote of no-confidence: A motion of no-confidence must simultaneously carry a proposal for an alternative leader.
• Notice for no-confidence motion: minimum 20% of House members.
• Council of Ministers ceiling: Maximum 10% of the lower house strength; political offices with ministerial perks limited to 2%.
• Lokpal to be constituted (PM outside its purview); Lokayuktas to be set up in every state.
• Allow lateral entry into government above the Joint Secretary level.
• Amend Article 311 to protect honest officials and penalise dishonest ones.
• Personnel decisions (placements, transfers, promotions) to be handled by autonomous Civil Service Boards.
• Guarantee Right to Information; replace oath of secrecy with an oath of transparency.
• Enact Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower) Acts and a law for forfeiture of benami property.

7. Centre-State Relations

• Include disaster and emergency management in the Concurrent List.
• Establish a statutory Inter-State Trade and Commerce Commission.
• Governor to be appointed after consultation with the Chief Minister of the state.
• Article 356 to be retained but invoked only as a last resort; ministry's confidence to be tested on the floor of the House alone - Governor cannot dismiss a ministry that enjoys House confidence.
• State Assembly not to be dissolved before the Article 356 proclamation is laid before Parliament.
• River water disputes: Bench of minimum three (up to five) Supreme Court judges.
• President must decide on state bills reserved for his consideration within three months.

8. Judiciary

• Establish a National Judicial Commission under the Constitution to recommend SC appointments - comprising the CJI (chairperson), two senior SC judges, the Union Law Minister, and one Presidential nominee.
• Increase retirement age: High Court judges to 65; Supreme Court judges to 68.
• Exclusive contempt and constitutional review powers to remain only with the Supreme Court and High Courts.
• Judgements to be delivered within 90 days of conclusion of hearings.
• Introduce plea-bargaining as part of decriminalisation.
• Rationalise subordinate court hierarchy to a two-tier system under the High Court; no case to remain pending beyond one year.

9. Socio-Economic Development

• Ensure SC/ST/BC representation on Supreme Court and High Court benches.
• Create Arakshan Nyaya Adalats to adjudicate reservation disputes.
• Transfer all Fifth Schedule tribal areas to the Sixth Schedule.
• Set up special courts for SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act offences.
• Establish a National Authority for Liberation and Rehabilitation of bonded labour.
• Comprehensive action on women's reservation, health, empowerment and protection from violence.

10. Decentralisation (Panchayats and Municipalities)

• Explicitly declare Panchayats and Municipalities as institutions of self-government with exclusive functions (amend Articles 243-G and 243-W).
• Election Commission of India to issue directions to State Election Commissions; SEC to submit annual reports to ECI and the Governor.
• CAG to audit Panchayati Raj bodies or prescribe their accounting standards.
• Establish a distinct tax domain for municipalities.
• Delimitation Commission (not the SEC) to handle delimitation, reservation and rotation of seats.

11. Electoral Reforms

• Persons charged with offences carrying 5+ years imprisonment to be disqualified from contesting.
• Persons convicted of heinous crimes (murder, rape, dacoity, smuggling) to be permanently debarred from all political office.
• Criminal cases against politicians to be disposed by Special Courts.
• No simultaneous contest from more than one constituency for the same office.
• Election Code of Conduct to have statutory force; violations to carry penal consequences.
• Examine feasibility of replacing first-past-the-post with a 50%+1 runoff system.
• Independent candidate losing three consecutive elections permanently debarred from that office.
• Minimum valid votes for deposit retention: raised from 16.67% to 25%.
• CEC and Election Commissioners to be appointed by a multi-party committee: PM + Leaders of Opposition in both Houses + Speaker of Lok Sabha + Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

12. Political Parties

• Comprehensive legislation for party registration and regulation - covering open membership, mandatory audited accounts, candidate asset declaration, and denial of tickets to convicted/charge-sheeted persons.
• ECI to progressively raise the recognition threshold to discourage proliferation of smaller parties.
• Political funding law: corporate donations within higher limits; donations tax-exempt up to a threshold; audited accounts published annually; penalties for false election returns.

13. Anti-Defection Law (Tenth Schedule)

Four critical reforms proposed:

1. All defectors (whether individual or group) must resign their seats and contest fresh elections.
2. Defectors debarred from holding ministerial or remunerative political office for the remainder of the existing legislative term or until the next election, whichever comes first.
3. A defector's vote cast to bring down a government to be treated as invalid.
4. Defection cases to be decided by the Election Commission of India, not by the Speaker or Chairman of the relevant House.

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• NCRWC vs other bodies: NCRWC (2000) is not a constitutional body - it was set up by executive resolution, unlike the Election Commission or CAG.
• 249 recommendations: 58 constitutional, 86 legislative, 105 executive.
• The Commission's mandate was review, not rewrite; function was advisory only.
• Basic structure constraint was built into the terms of reference.
• Key numerical anchors: 11 study areas, 2-volume / 1,979-page report, 3-month extension deadline, 90-day judgement delivery, 10% ministerial ceiling, 20% House threshold for no-confidence.
• Anti-defection reform: The proposal to shift adjudicatory power to the ECI (from Speaker) is a recurring UPSC theme.
• Constructive vote of no-confidence is modelled on German parliamentary practice.
• Ninth Schedule: Commission recommended restricting its immunity - later partially endorsed by the Supreme Court in the I.R. Coelho case (2007).
• The Commission's characterisation of fifty years as a saga of missed opportunities is often quoted in questions testing evaluative understanding.