Very recently I was reading the story of Amrit Manthan, or Samudra Manthan, as many may call it and it dawned upon me that a similar system may be seen in our polity as well. We have our Constitution, which is supposed to be the source of the ‘Constitutional’ bodies of India. Then, we have the various specified statues, like the Consumer Protection Act, the Protection of Human Rights Act and so on, which are the sources of the ‘non-Constitutional’ bodies in the country. Thus, we may see that the Constitutional bodies or just the Constitution, serve as the base of the churn (Kurma, Kashyap) and the non-Constitutional bodies serve as the shaft that actually churns the ocean. Without the Constitutional bodies (base of the churn), the non-Constitutional bodies (shaft) will collapse. Without the non-Constitutional bodies (shaft), the Constitutional bodies (base of the churn) will be rendered useless. However, it is true that the non-Constitutional bodies have to function in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution (just like the shaft has to balance itself upon the base, or else it will fall). Keeping this thought in mind, I felt that it is really important to us to have a look at some of the most important non-Constitutional bodies in India. We talk so much about the Supreme Court, the Parliament, and the High Courts, which we have forgotten about focusing upon these important entities as well. In this book I couldn’t discuss all of the non-Constitutional bodies, as the volume of the task is insurmountable for me. However, I have discussed about the four most important bodies according to my understanding, viz., the Consumer Commissions, the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.), the Human Rights Commissions, the Information Commissions and have also provided an introductory chapter upon the very concept of these non-Constitutional bodies. Certain strong comments regarding the various have also been incorporated with suitable evidence to support the claims. I hope that the reader will enjoy reading my very first book. One small suggestion for the reader- please approach this book as both an informative, as well as an analytical piece. Then you would be able to truly appreciate the content.
Raunak Chaturvedi