Following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations,the Objectives Resolution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 January, 1947, it was decided to draw up a Constitution which shall guarantee and secure to the people of India "justice, social, economic and political, equality of status, of opportunity and before the law: freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality'', etc.[1]

Despite the fact that the Indian Constitution is believed to have been borrowed from various other Constitutions, the acknowledgment of its framers is recognized by the fact that they brought together the best features of each of the existing Constitutions made alterations to them in such a manner so as to avoid the mistakes that had been disclosed in their working. After making the necessary alterations, they adopted them to the existing conditions and needs of this country. Hence, even if people call it a “patchwork”, it is a beautiful “patchwork”.[2]

With the Constitution being the supreme law, there are several aspects of the Indian Government that are identified through the salient features of the Constitution. While framing the Constitution, the framers thought of the Indian Government and chose a manner in which it can be represented in the Constitution. India has a Parliamentary form of Government. The main feature of a Parliamentary Government is that constitutionally the Head of the State enjoys many powers but in practice he does not utilize these powers.[3] On stepping out of the theoretical view and looking at the practical aspect, the powers are actually used by the ministers and the President, being the Head of the State, gets the mere benefit of only nominal powers and has to act as per the advice of Ministry.

The major significant characteristic feature of a Parliamentary government is the leadership of the Prime Minister over the Cabinet. His position in the Cabinet is 'primus interpares' that is first among equals.[4] Considering the fact that he is the leader of the majority party in the Lower House, he is also known as the leader of the House. In the mechanism of the Parliamentary form of Government, the Prime Minister occupies the crucial position.[5] This is imbibed in the Constitution that the President is the Head of the State and the Prime Minister takes control of all the decision-making power.

The Indian Constitution lays down the Constitutions for both, the Union as well as the States with equal precision.[6] From the earliest period that our memory can trace back to, the Indian States had a distinct political unit which had a very minimal similarity with the political entities of the provinces which constituted the rest of India. Nevertheless, the political state of affairs transformed with the supremacy of the British Crown as a result of which most of the Indian States acceded to the Dominion of India on the eve of the independence of India and they were brought within the Union envisaged by the Constitution by a process of integration[7]. In India, the Constitution does not necessitate the Parliament to take the consent of the States for reorganizing boundaries or eliminating States. The only part where the State Legislatures are concerned is when the President ascertains their views before recommending a Bill. If the State Legislatures fail to express their concern within the fixed time limit, the Bill can be passed anyway without even being concerned about their opinion.

Judiciary in India has been made a specific division as a branch of the legal system other than Executive and Legislature. Although there is a separation, this separation of power is not rigid in nature. The debate regarding the independence of judiciary is constantly in force but, there has been a hazy picture of independence theoretically. The theory of the common law "that justice can best be achieved by giving each party the fullest opportunity to present his own case "was brought into vogue in India by the English.

While it is debatable whether India's political structure is federal with unitary features or unitary with federal features, it is incontestable that its judicial structure is unitary as both Union and State laws are interpreted in a single judicial system.[8] The federal system in India exists in a normal scenario but, this same federal structure converts into a unitary form of Government in case of an emergency being declared.

In India, the Constitution is supreme and it is codified and written. This, in itself, is a proof of the fact that the primary governing law in India is codified irrespective of all other features which turn out to be derived from other sources of law. Although most of the laws in India are codified, the essential fact cannot be over-looked that such codification is flexible in nature and such flexibility gets derived from societal norms. With these essential features of the Constitution, it had become convenient to identify the form of governance in India and the growth of the Constitution has been massive due to the amendments from time to time.