Irish Constitution and The Indian Constitution

The Constitution of India came into practice on 26 January 1950. The Indian Constitution is the longest written constitution. An expert committee drafted it, which was led by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The main objective of the Indian Constitution was to enforce law and order in the country. It promises to bring justice and equality to the nation and promote fraternity.

The Indian Constitution has adopted various provisions and features of other constitutions. It has provisions like the directive principles of state policy from the Ireland Constitution and fundamental rights from the American Constitution. Here are three important features of the Indian Constitution inspired by the Irish Constitution.

Three Features of Indian Constitution inspired by Irish Constitution

• Directive Principles of State Policy

The Directive Principles Policy was inspired by Ireland’s Constitution issued in 1937. This Irish directive principles policy focuses primarily on farmers’ and local workers’ rights. It aims to grant fair wages, proper distribution of resources, and activities that promote the welfare of the people. But the Indian committee has made certain modifications by integrating social justice, economic progress, and foreign policy principles.

The laws and doctrines mentioned under the Directive principles policy are for the governing body to implement. They function as guidelines to make Indian laws and policies. The main goal of the Indian Constitution was to bring a social revolution. And this was made possible by setting the directive principles.

• Proportional representation system for Electing the President

India’s method of electing the president is quite similar to Ireland’s. This method follows the indirect election system. A group of members from the electoral college then vote through the Single transferable vote system. The electoral college consists of the members of the legislative assembly and the members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. 

The voting system for the election is a proportional representation system. The main similarity in both constitutions is the Proportional representation system. This voting system takes place in multiple phases or stages. The members elect one candidate for each preference number. After this, the candidate with the lowest preferences is eliminated. In this way, the candidate getting through the multiple stages with the highest preferences wins. The Indian method of electing a President differs from the Irish constitution method as the Irish method uses direct election.

An ordinary resident of Ireland can vote in the presidential election. In addition, the Irish rules for candidate eligibility differ from the Indian rules for participating as a presidential candidate in the election. The term period is also different in both constitutions. The Irish constitution states that the term length is seven years. But in India, the term length for the president is five years.

• Members’ nomination by the President.

The nomination method- followed to select the Rajya Sabha is inspired by the Ireland Constitution. Twelve experts in their field are chosen or nominated by the president. Rajya Sabha is the higher house of Parliament in India. Twelve of the members- are selected by the president. These twelve members have expertise in fields such as art, science, social service, and literature. 

The nominated members are scholars like scientists, historians, economists, engineers, artists, social workers. The 12 members have equal rights as the other members. However, they cannot vote in the election of the president.

Conclusion

The Indian constitution has many laws and amendments inspired by other countries. But there have been changes in the provisions as per the nation’s background and cultural history.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar has studied up to 60 constitutions before drafting the Indian Constitution. It took three years after 1947 independence to adopt the constitution. It was because of the detailed research and study done to make a constitution for India.

There are three principles or laws borrowed from the Irish Constitution. These are the Directive principles of state policy, the proportional system for electing the president and the nomination of twelve experts for the Rajya Sabha by the president.