Adult franchise

Dr. Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly that "by parliamentary democracy we mean 'one man, one vote'. Almost as an act of faith, the founding fathers decided to opt for universal adult suffrage with every adult Indian without any distinction at once having equal voting rights. This was particularly remarkable in the context of the vast poverty and illiteracy of the Indian populace. Even in the advert democracies of the West,  the franchise was extended only gradually.

Read More

Parliamentary Sovereignty Vs. Judicial Supremacy

In the British parliamentary system, Parliament is supreme and sovereign. There are  no limitations on its powers, at least in theory, inasmuch  as there is no written constitution and the Judiciary has no power of judicial review of legislation.

In the U.S. system, the Supreme Court with its power of judicial review and of interpreting the Constitution has assumed supremacy.

In India, the Constitution has arrived at a middle course and a compromise between the British sovereignty of Parliament and American judicial supremacy. We are governed by the rule of law and judicial review of administration action is an essential part of rule of law. Thus, courts can determine not only the constitutionality of the law but also the procedural part of administrative action (State of Bihar v.Subhash Singh, AIR 1997 SC 1390). But, since we have a written constitution and the powers and functions of every organ are defined and delimited by the Constitution, there is no question of any organ-not even Parliament- being sovereign. Both Parliament and the Supreme Court are supreme in their respective spheres. While the Supreme Court may declare a law passed by Parliament ultra vires as being violative of the Constitution, Parliament may within certain restrictions amend most parts of the Constitution.

Read More

DELHI HIGHER JUDICIAL SERVICE EXAMINATION – 2013

 PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS HIGH COURT OF DELHI : NEW DELHI 

(website : www.delhihighcourt.nic.in) 

 

DELHI HIGHER JUDICIAL SERVICE EXAMINATION – 2013 

 

THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI will hold examination for direct recruitment against 14 vacancies to Delhi Higher Judicial Service on Sunday, the 06th April, 2014.  The examination shall be in two successive stages:- 

i) Delhi Higher Judicial Service Preliminary Examination (Objective type with 25% negative marking) for selection to the main examination; and 

 

ii) Delhi Higher Judicial Service Main Examination (Descriptive) for selection of candidates for calling for Viva Voce. 

 

The Syllabus for the Preliminary (Objective) Examination shall be as follows :- 

 

General Knowledge, Current Affairs, English Language and topics on Constitution of India, Evidence Act, Limitation Act, Code of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code, Contract Act, Partnership Act, Principles governing Arbitration Law, Specific Relief Act, Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Transfer of Property Act and Negotiable Instruments Act. 

 

The Syllabus for the Main (Descriptive) Examination shall be as follows :- 

 

Constitution of India, Evidence Act, Limitation Act, Code of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code, Contract Act, Partnership Act, Principles governing Arbitration Law, Specific Relief Act, Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Transfer of Property Act and Negotiable Instruments Act. 

 

Detailed information about the pattern of the selection process etc. is given in the instructions annexed with the Application Form. 

 The time-scale of pay of members of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service is 51550-1230-58930-1380-63070 plus allowances as are admissible to officers working under the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. A candidate shall be eligible to appear in the examination if he/she is (a) citizen of India; (b) a person who has practised as an advocate for not less than 7 years; (c) a person who has attained the age of 35 years but has not attained the age of 45 years as on 1st January, 2013. 

Application form including the DHJSE Registration Form can be obtained against Demand Draft / Pay Order (non-refundable) in favour of Registrar General, Delhi High Court, New Delhi payable at New Delhi for ` 1,000/- for General Category candidates and ` 200/- for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes candidates on any working day from 06.01.2014 to 05.02.2014 between 10.30 A.M. & 1.00 P.M. and 2.00 P.M. & 4.00 P.M. from the Filing Counter of Delhi High Court, or by sending a self addressed envelope of 38 cm X 25 cm size with postage stamp of ` 90/- affixed on it alongwith Demand Draft of ` 1,000/- for General Category candidates and 200/- for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes candidates in favour of Registrar General, Delhi High Court, New Delhi payable at New Delhi in an envelope addressed to Joint Registrar (Vig.), Delhi High Court, New Delhi, superimposed with words in bold letters, "DHJS EXAMINATION – 2013". The prescribed Application Form alongwith instructions and DHJSE Registration Form will be sent to the candidate(s) by Speed Post/Registered Post subject to their fulfilling above said requirements and no enquiry / correspondence shall be entertained in this regard.

 

Application on the prescribed form and the DHJSE Registration Form duly filled in should be sent by "Registered Post Acknowledgment Due" addressed to the Joint 

Registrar (Vig.), Delhi High Court, Sher Shah Road, New Delhi - 110 003, by designation, in the envelope provided with the application form so as to reach him not 

later than 4.00 P.M. on 06.02.2014. Applications can also be submitted personally at the Filing Counter of Delhi High Court on any working day between 10.30 A.M. & 

1.00 P.M. and 2.00 P.M. & 4.00 P.M. till 06.02.2014.  The number of vacancies to be filled in is 14. The break up of the vacancies is as under:- 

General 10 

Scheduled Castes 01 

Scheduled Tribes 03 

 

The above vacancies are subject to outcome of WP(C) No. 256/2010 titled Keshav Kaushik vs. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi) & Ors., WP(C) No. 367/2010 titled Narender Kumar Chaudhry vs. State (Govt. of NCT Delhi ) & Anr. and Transfer Case (Civil) No. 77/2011 titled Surender Pal Singh Chauhan vs. State (Govt. of NCT, Delhi) & Ors., pending in Supreme Court of India, and WP(C) No. 93/2011 titled Mukesh Kumar Maroria vs. High Court of Delhi & Anr. pending in Delhi High Court. 

Applications incomplete in any form or those not on the prescribed application form or not accompanied by the DHJSE Registration Form or received after the due date, are liable to be rejected summarily. 

 The candidates applying for the examination should ensure that they fulfill all the eligibility conditions for admission to the examination. Their admission at the stage of written examination and the interview / viva-voce for which they are admitted by this Court will be purely provisional, subject to their satisfying the prescribed eligibility conditions. If on verification at any time before or after the written examination and the Interview / Viva-voce, it is found that they do not fulfill any of the eligibility conditions, their candidature for the examination shall stand cancelled without any notice or further 

reference.  

 

Read More

27th BIHAR JUDICIAL EXAMINATION, 2011 - General Science

ELEMENTARY GENERAL SCIENCE

Time Allowed: 3 hours
Maximum Marks: 100
Marks are indicated against each question
There are five sections in the question paper
Answer one question from each section

SECTION-A

Q.1. (a) What for the following devices are used?
1. Thermostat
2. Vacuum-cleaner
3. Telex
4. Polygraph
5. Radar
6. Seismograph
7. Stethoscope
8. Periscope
9. Endoscope
10. Escalator

(b). Differentiate between the following:
1. Transformer and Dynamo
2. Voltmeter and Potentiometer
3. Taximeter and Tokometer
4. Ammeter and Galvanometer
5. Velocity and Acceleration

Q.2. (a) Write scientific explanation of the following:
1. In the solution of soap large bubble can be produced
2. Bicycle pump becomes hot while pumping air in the tyre

(b) Write short notes on the following:
1. Application of laser
2. Application of photoelectric cells


SECTION-B

Q.3. (a) Explain the difference between the following:
1. Solar eclipse and Lunar eclipse
2. Rotation and Revolution of earth

(b) Explain, why:
1. Human breath is visible in winter but not in summer
2. Food is cooked quickly in a pressure cooker

Q.4. (a) Explain the following:
1. Plate tectonics
2. Asteroid
3. Ozonosphere
4. Computer virus
5. Hybrid vehicles

(b) Differentiate between the following:
1. RAM and ROM
2. Bit and Byte
3. Hardware and software
4. Hard disc and floppy disc
5. Mouse and Curser key


SECTION-C

Q.5. (a) Briefly explain the following:
1. Heavy water
2. Safety glass
3. Biogas
4. Plaster of Paris
5. Gypsum

(b) Give scientific explanation of the following:
1. Sometimes milk turns sour
2. It is fatal to have coal fire burning in closed room
3. A sliced apple on exposure to air turne browh a
4. A petrol fire cannot be extinguished by pouring water over it
5. We feel difficulty in breathing on high mountains

Q. 6. (a) Explain the difference between the following:
1. Oils and Fats
2. Soap and Detergent

(b) Enlist the uses of the following:
1. Teflon
2. Crown
3. Platinum
4. Tear gas

(c) Write full forms of the following abbreviation:
1. RDX
2. CNG
3. LSD
4. MIC


SECTION-C

Q.7.(a) Give brief answer to the following:
1. What is Bt brinjal?
2. What is groundwater table?
3. What is altruistic behaviour?

4. What is smog?
5. What is Jhuming cultivation?


(b) Distinguish between the following:
1. Butterfly and Moth
2. Poisonous and Non-poisonous snake
3. Monocots and Dicots
4. Apes and Man
5. Predation and Parasitism

Q.8. (a) What would be the consequences, if----
1. Organisms failed to reproduce;
2. Organisms become immoral?

(b) Name the protein present in each of the following:
1. Hair
2. Human red blood cells
3. Milk
4. Islets of Langerhans
5. Saliva
6. Wheat

(c) Name the process involved in the following:
1. Swelling of raisins in water
2. Intake of fluids through cell membrane
3. Creation of RBC
4. Intake of solids through cell membrane


SECTION--E


Q.9. (a) Explain the following:
1. Pheromones
2. Demography
3. Greenhouse effect
4. Biomagnification
5. Biosphere reserve

(b) Name the cell organelle which acts as the following:
1. Powerhouse of cell
2. Post-office of cell
3. Suicidal bags of cell
4. Engine of cell

(c).--------
1. Which virus causes swine flu?
2.What is the permissible noise level in residential areas?
3. Name the scientist associated with 'origin of species by natural selection
4. which branch of science deals with solving the cases of civil and criminal laws?
5. Name a mammal which flies like birds.
6. Which pigment is responsible for green colour of leaves in plants?

Q.10. (a). Name the subject to which these famous scientists are associated:
1. Srinivash Ramanujan
2. C.V. Raman
3. Birbal Sahni
4. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
5. Homi J. Bhabha

(b). 1. Name the disease caused by deficiency of vitamin D.
2. Name the enzyme which helps in the digestion of fats.
3. Name the bacterium that causes leprosy.
4. Name the bacterium that causes tetanus.
5. Name the vitamin whose deficiency causes night blindness.
6. Give a scientific explanation of the following.
(i) Salt dissolve in water
(ii) Oil does not dissolve in water.

Read More

Parliamentary or Presidential System

India is a Republic and the head is the President in whom all the executive power vests and in whose name it is to be exercised. He is also the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. It has been held, however, that unlike the U.S. President, our President is only a nominal or constitutional head of the executive; he acts only with the aid and advice of the real political executive which is the Council of Ministers. The Ministers are collectively responsible to the popular House of Parliament i.e. the Lok Sabha. Thus, following the British pattern, the Constitution of India has basically adopted, both at the Union and State levels, the parliamentary system of government with ministerial responsibility to the popular House as against the U.S. system of the Presidential Government with separation of powers and a nearly irremovable President as the Chief Executive for a fixed term. In the U.S. system, the President chooses his team of ministers from among the citizens at large and the ministers are not members of the legislature while in the Parliamentary System, the Ministers are from Parliament and remain part of it and responsible to its House of the People. The Parliamentary System may be said to be laying greater stress on the concept of the responsibility of the executive while the Presidential system obviously promotes more the stability of the executive.

It would, however, be wrong to assert that we have adopted the British parliamentary system in toto. There are several fundamental differences and departures.  To name a few; the U.K. Constitution is still largely unitary, while ours is largely federal. They are a monarchy with a hereditary King while we are a republic with an elected President, unlike the British we have a written constitution and our Parliament, therefore, is not sovereign and legislation passed by it is subject to judicial review. Our Constitution includes a charter of justiciable fundamental rights which are enforceable by the Courts not only against the executive but also against the legislature unlike the position in U.K.

There has been some debate on our country on the desirability or otherwise of moving over to the Presidential model. The founding fathers, however, preferred the parliamentary form because they had some experience of operating it and there were advantages in continuing established institutions. After a long struggle for responsible government and against arbitrary executive authority, they were naturally allergic to a fixed term irremovable executive. In a highly pluralistic society with India's size and diversity and with many pulls of various kinds, they believed that the parliamentary form was the most suited for accommodating a variety of interests and building a united India.

Discussing the problem of making a choice between the U.S. Presidential model and the British parliamentary model, both of which were democratic, Dr. Ambedkar had said in the Constituent Assemble:

"A democratic executive must satisfy two conditions –

(1) It must be a stable executive and

(2) It must be a responsible executive.

Unfortunately it has not been possible so far to devise a system which can ensure both in equal degree. You can have a system which can give you more stability but less responsibility or you can have a system which gives you more responsibility but less stability. The American and the Swiss systems give more stability but less responsibility.  The British System on the other hand gives you more responsibility but less stability. The Draft Constitution in recommending the Parliamentary system of Executive has preferred more responsibility to more stability".

K.M. Munshi put the argument more candidly when he said:

"We must not forget a very important fact that during the last hundred years, Indian public life has largely drawn upon the traditions of British Constitutional law. Most of us have looked up to the British model as the best. For the last thirty year or forty years, some kind of responsibility has been introduced in the governance of this country. Our constitutional traditions have become parliamentary. After this experience, why should we go back upon the tradition that has been built for over a hundred years and buy a novel experience?"

 

 

 

 

Read More

Types of Constitution

Written or Unwritten

Constitution may be written like the U.S. Constitution or unwritten and based on conventions like the British. Our Constitution is written even though conventions also play a part insofar as they are in keeping with the provisions of the Constitution.

Rigid or Flexible

 Constitutions may be called rigid or flexible on the ground of the amending procedure being difficult or easy. Federal Constitutions are usually classified as rigid because of their difficult amending processes.  Our Constitution may be said to be a combination of rigid and flexible inasmuch as certain provisions of the constitution-e.g. Article 2, 3 and 4, and 169-can be amended like ordinary legislation by simple majority in the Houses of Parliament, other provisions can be amended under Article 368 by the Houses of Parliament by a special majority of 2/3rd of the members present and voting and a majority of the total membership in each House. Only in the case of a few of the provisions, in addition to a special majority in the two Houses of Parliament, an amendment would require the ratification of not less than one-half of the States. The fact that during 63 years, there were as many as 111 amendments disproves the charge of the rigidity of our Constitution.

Federal or Unitary

Constitutions are also divided between federal and unitary. The classical example of the first category again is the U.S. Constitution and of the second the U.K. Constitution. In a unitary constitution, all powers are vested in the Central Government to which the authorities in the units are subordinate and function as the agents of the Government at the Centre and exercise authority by delegation from the Centre. In a federal polity, usually, there must be a rigid, written constitution, it must be supreme and it must specifically divide powers between the federal government and the governments of the units-both exercising powers in their respective spheres in their own right and independently. In fact, in a classic federation, the federal government enjoys only those powers that are by agreement surrendered to it by the units. Also, there must be an independent supreme court as the arbiter of any disputes between the Union and the States.

India's Constitution has been variously described as quasi-federal, federal with a strong unitary or pro-centre bias, federal in structure but unitary in spirit, federal in normal times but with possibilities of being converted into a purely unitary one during Emergency, etc. The fact is that it is difficult to put our Constitution in any strict mould of a federal or unitary type; it has features of both. It can not be considered unitary because it provides, for example, for the distribution of executive and legislative powers between the Union and States and provisions affecting the powers of the States or Union –State relations cannot be amended without ratification by the States. It can not be considered strictly federal either because the residuary powers vested in the Union. As Dr. Ambedkar said, rigidity and legalism were the two serious weaknesses of federalism. The Indian system was unique in that it created a dual polity with a single Indian citizenship which could be both unitary and federal according to requirements of time and circumstances. Under Article 249, the Union Parliament can invade the State List. Under Articles 356 and 357, on the ground of failure of constitutional machinery in any State, all its executive and legislative powers may be taken over by the Union and under Articles 352 to 354, the Constitution can be converted into an entirely unitary one inasmuch as during Proclamation of Emergency, the executive and legislative powers of the Union extends to matters even in the State List. Finally, under Articles 2, 3 and 4 new States may be formed and areas, boundaries or names of existing States altered by the Union Parliament by ordinary law passed by simple majority votes.

Reasons for this unique unitary-federal mix are to be found in the constitution history of India, the sheer size of the country and in the nature of her complex diversities based on the religion, language, region, culture etc. Moving the Draft Constitution for adoption by the Constituent Assembly, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar tried to explain the significance of using the term "Union of States" instead of "Federation of States" in the following words:

"The Drafting Committee wanted to make it clear that though India was to be a federation, the federation was not the result of an agreement by the States to join in a federation and that the federation not being the result of an agreement, not state has the right to secede from it. The federation is a Union because it is indestructible. Though the country and the people may be divided into different States for convenience of administration, the country is one integral whole, its people a single people living under a single imperium derived from a single source".

The text of the Constitution does not anywhere use the term 'federal' or 'federation'. The Supreme Court has spoken of the Indian Union as 'federal', quasi-federal' or 'ambhibian' meaning sometimes 'federal' and sometimes 'unitary' (State of Rajasthan v. Union of India, AIR 1977 SC 1361).

Read More

SALIENT FEATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION

The constitution of India is unique in many ways. It has several special features that distinguish it from other Constitutions of the world.

Size of the Constitution

In sheer physical terms, it is the lengthiest Constitution ever given to any nation. It is very comprehensive document and includes many matters which could legitimately be the subject matters of ordinary legislation or administrative action. This happened because the Government of India Act, 1935 which was after all basically a statute, was used as a model and an initial working draft and large portions of it got it reproduced in the constitution. Also, the constitution makers did not want to leave certain matters subject to doubts, difficulties and controversies to be handled by future legislation. Unlike the United States where in addition to the federal constitution, each state has its own separate Constitution , the Constitution of India included not only the Constitution of the Union but also of the States. The size, complexities and the diversities of the Indian situation also necessitated several special, temporary, transitional and miscellaneous provisions for certain regions of the country or classes of people. Not only does the Constitution contain a very comprehensive charter of justiciable fundamental rights, it also delineates the limitations under which these must necessarily operate unlike the United States, where limitations had to be read into the rights by court decisions. Besides, our  Constitution contains a description of several Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties of citizens which though not enforceable in courts of law are expected to guide the State and the citizens respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read More