This is brilliant. Thank you for doing this. Where are you sourcing the original text from ?
All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
41–50 of 91 posts
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#42If I file a PR on it and more than half a billion Indians give it a thumbs up, does it get merged? Talk about e-voting!
Direct democracy has its problems. 50.01% voting can cause serious issues. But using tech to improve speed of policy should be a thing
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Italy (and I guess in many other places) laws are effectively commits , not documents/ files. The actual law is often implicit in the result of the successive modifications each new law applies to the existing ones. Which is terrible from a usability perspective- it's like working with lists of patches instead of files. I think software engineers- thanks to much faster iteration cycles and having clarity and order…
I think you are just describing the difference between a bill (what is debated and discussed during the legislative process), and the compendium of statutes (or regulations, etc.) that is updated via the legislative process. My understanding is that there are always administrative departments responsible for updating and publishing the statutes based on the bills that have been passed. This is effectively applying a…
> that there are always administrative departments responsible for updating and publishing the statutes based on the bills that have been passed
I don't think that's the case in Italy. A bill often takes the takes the form of sequences such as "in the bill n. 1234/05 at the subparagraph 2, the word X is replaced with the word Y." There isn't, to my knowledge, a notion of "document" which the patch is applied to. You can, of course, derive the documents from the successive patches, and laws on new matters contain an entire document as a "first commit". But in software engineering it's the documents/ files you care about, patches and commits only exist as a support for change management.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#44https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b...
>"338B. (1) There shall be a Commission for the socially and educationally backward classes to be known as the National Commission for Backward Classes."
[...]
"(5) It shall be the duty of the Commission—
(a) to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under this Constitution or under any other law for the time being in force or under any order of the Government and to evaluate the working of such safeguards;
(b) to inquire into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the socially and educationally backward classes;
(c) to participate and advise on the socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes and to evaluate the progress of their development under the Union and any State;
(d) to present to the President, annually and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit, reports upon the working of those safeguards;
(e) to make in such reports the recommendations as to the measures that should be taken by the Union or any State for the effective implementation of those safeguards and other measures for the protection, welfare and socio-economic development of the socially and educationally backward classes; and
(f) to discharge such other functions in relation to the protection, welfare and development and advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes as the President may, subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament, by rule specify.
[...]
"(9) The Union and every State Government shall consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting the socially and educationally backward classes."
[...]
"340. Appointment of a Commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes.—(1) The President may by order appoint a Commission consisting of such persons as he thinks fit to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India and the difficulties under which they labour and to make recommendations as to the steps that should be taken by the Union or any State to remove such difficulties and to improve their condition and as to the grants that should be made for the purpose by the Union or any State and the conditions subject to which such grants should be made, and the order appointing such Commission shall define the procedure to be followed by the Commission."
[...]
342A. (1) The President may with respect to any State or Union territory, and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof, by public notification, specify the socially and educationally backward classes which shall for the purposes of this Constitution be deemed to be socially and educationally backward classes in relation to that State or Union territory, as the case may be.
(2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the Central List of socially and educationally backward classes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any socially and educationally backward class, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification"
===
PDS: I sure as hell hope that we Americans will never be considered a "socially and educationally backward class" by India!
And I sure as hell hope that the citizens of other countries -- will never be considered a "socially and educationally backward class" -- by India as well!
I mean, take India's historical relationship with Pakistan, for example...
My question to the Writers of The Indian Constitution:
Are the citizens of Pakistan -- also a "socially and educationally backward class" ?
?
Because, I sure as hell hope not!
By the way, here's a quick quote from (our American) Declaration Of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal
, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
Also, from our American Constitution (The "Equal Protection Clause"):
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
See, our laws here in the U.S. are much simpler -- basically everybody is equal before the eyes of the Law...
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
oh, I meant "courts" not press. Let me correct the comment. I was especially referring to https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/c... This amendment to Article 368 essentially gave the legislature unrestricted power to amend the constitution without fear of a judicial review.
There is no judicial review for amendments to the US constitution either. In the US the job of the courts are to interpret and apply the constitution. It's not their role to write it or constrain the writing of it.
The Supreme Court can and does severely constrain or expand what the writing is interpreted to actually apply to - you see this all the time around 1st, 2nd, 5th, 10th US amendments. In theory, a whole amendment could be neutered or nuked that way.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#46Is there something like this for the entire US Code? Laws in the US are often written to say something like "Amend Section X to say Y.", and it's very hard to follow.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#47This is brilliant. Thank you for doing this. Where are you sourcing the original text from ?
Till 96th amendment, I used the work done by https://github.com/captn3m0/constitution and https://github.com/anoopdixith/TheConstitutionOfIndia/
96 onwards, I downloaded the gazette notifications and applied the changes manually. I could not find any automated way.
I'll file an RTI one of these days to the Legal Department to source the Constitution as is, after every amendment. Let's see where that goes.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are just describing the difference between a bill (what is debated and discussed during the legislative process), and the compendium of statutes (or regulations, etc.) that is updated via the legislative process. My understanding is that there are always administrative departments responsible for updating and publishing the statutes based on the bills that have been passed. This is effectively applying a…
> that there are always administrative departments responsible for updating and publishing the statutes based on the bills that have been passed I don't think that's the case in Italy. A bill often takes the takes the form of sequences such as "in the bill n. 1234/05 at the subparagraph 2, the word X is replaced with the word Y." There isn't, to my knowledge, a notion of "document" which the patch is applied to. You…
That is interesting. Thanks for elaborating.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#49Is there something like this for the entire US Code? Laws in the US are often written to say something like "Amend Section X to say Y.", and it's very hard to follow.
I have daydreamed about the same many times and considered trying to start it myself, but it didn't take too long before realizing that the reason I'd want it is the same reason I wouldn't stand a chance at building it.
It would certainly be a wonderful resource though. Especially if it could be implemented with a "code review" style interface for showing the votes on each of the bills representing a commit.
Re: All 104 amendments to the Constitution of India as Git commits
#50https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b... >"338B. (1) There shall be a Commission for the socially and educationally backward classes to be known as the National Commission for Backward Classes." [...] "(5) It shall be the duty of the Commission— (a) to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the socially and educationally backward classes under this Constitut…
- Constitution of India applies only in the Union of India
- The first article of the constitution defines the boundaries of the Union of India: https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b...
- The terminology referred to as "socially and educationally backward classes" is to provide certain underprivileged sections of the society better living standards
- PART-3 (https://github.com/prince-mishra/the-constitution-of-india/b...) guarantees the Fundamental Right to Equality 14. Equality before law.—The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.