Sovereignty and the Indian Constitution

The Preamble to the Constitution of India declares India to be a ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic’.⁴⁰ Though the Constitution itself does not elaborate or define the meaning of ‘Sovereignty’, the Supreme Court in various pronouncements has sought to establish what it could mean or imply. In Gopalan Vs. State of Madras (1950) and Union of India Vs. Madan Gopal (1954), the Court held that the phrase ‘We, the people of India … adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution’ appearing in the Preamble, declares ultimate sovereignty of the people of India and that the constitution rests on their authority.⁴¹ Furthermore, in the Synthetics Vs. State of U.P. (1990), the Supreme Court maintained that ‘the word “sovereign” meant that the State had power to legislate on any subject in conformity with constitutional limitations.’⁴² Thus, we have the doctrine of popular sovereignty implied in the Preamble where the Constitution itself becomes sovereign though under the authority of the people of India. This understanding of sovereignty has the context of transfer of power where colonial rule has ended and there was a need to declare the sovereignty of the people of India. On the other hand, once the Constitution has been declared as sovereign, the State, drawing its legislative power from it, is also empowered to legislate within constitutional limits.

We also find mention of the word, ‘Sovereignty’ in Article 19 under Part III of the Constitution of India. Article 19, dealing with the Fundamental Rights of citizens, puts some ‘reasonable restrictions’ on the exercise of certain rights, namely rights under Article 19 (1), (a), (b) and (c). Rights under Article 19(a) to freedom of speech and expression, Article 19(b) to assemble peacefully and without arms and Article 19(c) to form associations and unions are subject to reasonable restrictions in the interests of, amongst others, ‘the sovereignty and integrity of India’. This may be to create a balance between the sovereign legislative power of the State and the Fundamental Rights of the citizens, or ‘to strike a balance between individual liberty and social control.’⁴³ This enables the State to promulgate acts and legislation to control unlawful and terrorist activities. Here, sovereignty is understood in terms of national and territorial integrity.

The Supreme Court, in Indira Gandhi Vs. Raj Narain (1975) added, ‘India as a sovereign democratic republic’ as one of the fundamental elements of the basic structure of the Constitution.⁴⁴ We find that the Indian Constitution enshrines ‘sovereignty’ as one of the important aspects of the Constitutions and also invokes it in favour of the legislative power of the State (Article 19). However, the Preamble makes the people sovereign, which gets reflected in the Constitution itself. In short, we can say that sovereignty lies in the Constitution and the people remain the ultimate source of the Constitution.