Human Rights in India: Historical, Social and Political Perspectives. Edited by Chiranjivi J. Nirmal. [New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1999. xxxvi, 269, (Bibliography) 18, (Annexures) 34, and (Index) 6 pp. Hardback £12.99 net. ISBN 1–972–87055–4.] Datar on Constitution of India. By Arvind P. Datar. [Nagpur: Wadhwa & Co. 2001. cxxxiii, 1401, (Appendices) 180, and (Index) 92 pp. Hardback £75.00 net.

Abstract

The Constitution of India is a mammoth instrument—the largest Constitution in the world—with 395 articles, 12 Schedules and 83 amendments. Accounts of the constitutional law of India are thus inevitably very large. The late H.M. Seervai’s multi-volume Constitution of India (4th edn., 1993) is well known and rightly described as “monumental”. But now a new work is making its presence felt. Arvind Datar originally intended to write no more than a Student’s Edition of Seervai. But Seervai refused permission for this project, taking the view, probably with justice, that his work could not be summarised. So Datar decided to write an article by article commentary of the Constitution and Datar on Constitution of India is the result. The resulting book is monumental in its own right. It deals exhaustively with each of the articles of the constitution. The author makes it plain that he could have written a much longer book in that he refers only to decisions of the Supreme Court of India. Only where the Supreme Court has been silent does he refer to relevant decisions of the several state High Courts. None the less, his approach is commendably comparative. The Constitution of the United States is often referred to (and it is in fact reproduced in an appendix) as are decisions of the US Supreme Court. But the work as a whole shows that “Not the Potomac, but the Thames, fertilises the flow of the Yamuna” (Krishna Iyer J. in Samsher Singh v. Union of India AIR 1974 SC 2192 at 2212 cited by Datar on p. 396).