Why Ambedkar said the Constitution can’t be amended ‘at the sweet will of the majority’

Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, recently remarked that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was against the idea of amending the Constitution “at the sweet will of the majority” although he wanted it to be a dynamic, living document.Delivering the first Dr Ambedkar Memorial Lecture, organised by Dr Ambedkar International Centre on April 14, his birth anniversary, in New Delhi, the Supreme Court judge recounted his contribution in shaping the Constitution.Justice Gavai also noted that, despite being appointed as the head of the drafting committee only after joining the Constituent Assembly, Ambedkar’s contributions were instrumental in giving the Constitution its present form.What he meant is that, while the Constituent Assembly, tasked with framing the Constitution, was formed in late 1946, Ambedkar became its member in August 1946 and was immediately appointed as the chairman of the drafting committee.By the end of October 1947, the panel had begun reviewing the initial text prepared by constitutional adviser BN Rau. It made various changes and submitted the draft to the president of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad, on February 21, 1948. medium120543283Justice Gavai quoted extensively from Ambedkar’s speeches where he had expressed his views on various issues concerning the country — such as the need to uplift the marginalised sections of society; supremacy of the nation’s interest; and how he envisioned Article 32, which allows an individual to approach the Supreme Court seeking enforcement of fundamental rights, as one of the most important provisions of the Constitution.Excerpts from Justice Gavai’s speech:A multifaceted personalityWhen we celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar, we recount his contributions. All of us know that he had a very multifaceted personality. His contributions to various fields are numerous. All of us know that he was a great economist. He was a social reformer. He fought for the emancipation of the downtrodden.He was an educationist. He established one of the first institutions in the backward region of Aurangabad, Marathwada, to cater to the needs of the downtrodden. He was a great sociologist. He had a deep knowledge of various religions. He was a great lawyer himself. However, he could not pursue law much on account of his devotion to the cause to which he had dedicated himself.I’m of the view that there will be no better way to pay tribute to him than remembering his contributions to the framing of the Indian Constitution. Though 30 minutes would not be sufficient even to cursorily touch upon the subject, in the time that is allotted to me, I will try to refer to some of his speeches in the Constituent Assembly and touch upon his contribution to the greatest document that all of us worship, the Constitution of India.Though Dr Ambedkar had suffered a lot on account of untouchability, he did not carry the bag of that bitterness while working in the Constituent Assembly. He was always of the view that above everything is the nation. He always advocated for the unity of the nation.He said, “Today we are divided politically, socially, and economically. We are a group of warring camps, and I may go even to the extent of confessing that I’m probably one of the leaders of [one] such camp.”And here I quote one of the most important sentences in that speech, “When deciding the destinies of nations, dignities of people, dignities of leaders and dignities of parties ought to count for nothing. The destiny of the country ought to count for everything.”And his view on the supremacy of the interest of the nation could be also gathered from one of his other speeches. And I quote, “The common goal is the building up of the feeling that we are all Indians. I do not like what some people say, that we are Indians first and Hindus afterwards or Muslims afterwards. I’m not satisfied with that. I do not want that our loyalty as Indians should be in the slightest way affected by any competitive loyalty, whether that loyalty arises out of our religion, out of our culture or out of our language. I want all people to be Indians first, Indians last and nothing else but Indians.”At the time of making this speech on the 17th of December, 1946, Dr Ambedkar did not know that he would not only be a part of the drafting committee, but also its chairman.The draft Constitution was kept in the public domain for inviting objections for almost eight months and after considering those objections, the drafting committee revised the draft and presented the revised draft on 4th November 1948. In the revised draft, after considering the objections from various objectors, the number of Articles grew to 395 with 8 Schedules.It will be relevant to note that during the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, there were 7,635 amendments that were proposed, and out of them actually 2,473 amendments were discussed at length in the Constituent Assembly with most of the replies being given by Dr Ambedkar, Sir Krishnamachari and Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer. medium120543255How Ambedkar defended fundamental rightsIn the journey of the last 75 years, we have noticed that one of the most important Articles of the Constitution is Article 32 [right to approach the Supreme Court for enforcement of fundamental rights]. As I said in the beginning, Dr Ambedkar referred to it in his very first speech, stating that the fundamental rights without a provision to have a recourse to remedy is without any substance and therefore, when Article 32, which was Article 25 in the draft Constitution, came to be discussed, there were lengthy discussions.He said that, hereinafter, it would not be possible for any legislature to take away the writs which are mentioned in Article 32. He said, and I quote, “It is not that the Supreme Court is left to be invested with the power to issue these writs by a law to be made by the legislature at its sweet will. The Constitution has invested the Supreme Court with these rights and these writs could not be taken away unless and until the Constitution itself is amended by means left open to the legislature. This, in my judgment, is one of the greatest safeguards that can be provided for the safety and security of the individual.”And, as we now know that by subsequent interpretations by the Supreme Court, Article 32 has been held to be the basic structure, which cannot be tinkered with even by an amendment to the Constitution.He refers to Indian history as to how many times we were invaded and how many times we lost our freedom, and he warns us that the freedom we have got and the democracy that we have so liberally given to ourselves, should not be permitted to be again taken away as has happened in the past. And, therefore, he said that what we must do is not to be content by mere political democracy. Dr Ambedkar was of the view that political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy.On 26th January 2025, we completed 75 years from the date on which we have given to ourselves the Constitution… Two years back i.e. on 24th of April 2023, we celebrated the golden jubilee of Kesavananda Bharati [petitioner in the landmark case, which established the “basic structure doctrine” of the Indian Constitution]. We must pay our tribute to framers of the Constitution and also to the authors of the judgment who gifted this wonderful judgment. We celebrated the Amrit Mahotsav of the Indian Constitution. medium nocaptionhttp://youtu.be/9H6lvxuRShw?si=htgg830ulgQb-CgwThe basic structure of the ConstitutionWhen we look at the speeches Dr BR Ambedkar made on 17th December 1946, 4th November 1948 and on 25th November 1949, we will find as to what a great visionary he was. He had stated that the country would be strong and united in the time of peace as well as war. Though in the last 75 years, the country has faced various external aggressions and internal disturbances, the country remained united and strong. When we compare ourselves with the neighbouring countries, we would find as to how relevant his proposals were.We have seen that in the last 75 years, the Constitution has been amended from time to time to adapt to the changing needs because the Constitution is not a static document. It is not a rigid document/static document, but at the same time we have seen that though the Constitution has been amended to take into consideration the changing needs of every generation, the very basic structure of the Constitution has not been permitted to be changed.We, therefore, find that though there was a long standing debate on the issue of amending powers of Parliament to amend the Constitution, in Shankari Prasad, Sajjan Singh and Golaknath [cases adjudicated by the SC] and so on, but in the case of Kesavananda Bharati, by a majority of 7:6, the Supreme Court held that though Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution and even take away the fundamental rights, [it] does not have the power to amend the basic structure of the Constitution.Though the initial view of the Supreme Court in various cases, be it the bank nationalisation or the Maharaja’s [privy purse] case… in case of a conflict between the fundamental rights and directive principles, the directive principles will have to give way to the fundamental rights; this view has been turned upside down in [the] Kesavananda Bharati [case].And, therefore, the Kesavananda Bharati decision requires celebration for two important milestones — one, with regard to the basic structure doctrine, and secondly, for giving due importance to directive principles of state policy. Though there is a sharp division of 6 to 7 with regard to the amending powers of the Constitution; there is unanimity in almost all the views expressed in Kesavananda Bharati on the importance of directive principles.Lastly, I would refer to Dr Rajendra Prasad, who in his concluding speech on 26th November 1949… recognised the contribution of other members of the Constituent Assembly and said that their untiring work has given this valuable piece of Constitution and he ends by saying that all members of the Constituent Assembly, especially Dr Ambedkar, deserved the thanks of the nation. medium120543227A Constitution that has kept India strong, stable unitedAnd, therefore, friends, when we celebrate the 134th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar, whose initial entry in the Constituent Assembly was only to protect the interests of the scheduled castes, the oppressed, and the downtrodden, we, as a country, have recognised his invaluable contribution in presenting to this country a Constitution which has not only stood the test of the time for last 75 years, but it is this Constitution that has kept India strong, stable and united.And we find that, in the last 75 years, the country which was ridden earlier with caste, creed, religion, we have witnessed this country giving two Presidents who belonged to scheduled castes, viz., KR Narayanan and Ram Nath Kovind. The country has given us two women Presidents, the first one being Smt. Pratibha Patil and the second one being Smt. Draupadi Murmu, who also has been the first scheduled tribe president.The country has given two Speakers who belong to the scheduled castes — [GMC] Balyogi and Meira Kumar. It has also given two women Speakers, again Meira Kumar and Sumitra Mahajan. Dr Ambedkar always said that the women in this country are more oppressed than the Dalits and he, therefore, stated the furtherance of their upliftment was also a basic necessity.We have had a woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi. We had hundreds of IAS officers, IPS officers, chief secretaries, DGPs belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and OBCs.We have had a Dalit Chief Justice of India, Justice KG Balakrishnan. The country is having a prime minister, who comes from a humble background belonging to backward classes and who takes pride in saying that it is because of the Constitution of India, that he could be the prime minister of India.Speaking for myself, I was fortunate to have been born to a father who worked with Dr Ambedkar and served as one of the soldiers in the fight for social and economic justice. I’m here only because of Dr Ambedkar and the Constitution of India. Let us pay our tribute and homage to the great son of the soil, one of the greatest and most eminent personalities the world has ever produced, Dr BR Ambedkar, and thank him and the makers of the Constitution for giving India such a wonderful Constitution.