RAIPUR: Govt. of India does not have any specific written policy and directives to print and periodically publish the supreme document Constitution of India, a RTI reply revealed. The reply said, Govt. publishes pocket and A4 sized editions of ‘Constitution of India‘ on time to time basis. However, there is no any fixed time frame to print or publish it frequently.
To make it available to the common people, the Department of Legal Literature Publication, Ministry of Law and Justice, Govt. of India, is responsible to print, publish and sale of ‘Constitution of India’. The reply also said, “There is no specific guidelines and policy on paper and printing quality etc.”
Letter no.3/58/2015-RTI dated 15.04.2015 of the Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Govt. of India says “Constitution of India is being published by Ministry of Law and Justice when it receives demand or request from Controller-Publications and Law Literature Publication, Legislative Department, bodies working under the Ministry of Law and Justice, New Delhi.”
Letter no.3/57/2015-RTI dated 15.04.2015 says that the Ministry of Law and Justice has also not given any specific directives and guidelines for private publishers to print and publish Constitution of India.
Rusen Kumar, a resident of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh who asked about the guidelines and policy to print and publish the Constitution of India, said that Govt. is not very much concerned about the standards and quality of the supreme document.
“Constitution of India is world’s finest and lengthiest written live and alive document. Ours democracy depends and takes inspirations from the Constitution. It is the mother document that governs the state and whole system. We are all guided by this constitution.
So, why Govt. should not have a written directive and policy on frequency of publication, size, font size, paper quality, ink standard, page thickness, binding etc.?
The government and its relevant ministries should work at the earliest to make the people our country aware of their legal rights and duties for creating a peaceful and judicious India” Rusen Kumar said.
“I have been purchasing Constitution of India to spread awareness on its significance in daily life of common people. I have copies of pocket sized English-Hindi, 2011 edition of Constitution of India and found that the paper and printing quality is very poor and texts are not readable and overall it seems there is no quality check” Rusen Kumar said.
“The government should work sincerely towards ensuring the printing and distribution/circulation of the Constitution to all the citizens of the India. The government should distribute the printed copies of the constitution free of cost to all its citizens” he added.
“The government should also work on ensuring that Constitution becomes a part of the curriculum at the school and the college level as a part of general education course so that all citizens are optimally aware of the constitution and the legal framework” he said.
Rusen Kumar has written to the Govt. to publish the Constitution of India frequently in large numbers insuring high level of printing quality in esteemed manner, so that it can be restored for many years to come as the supreme document is intimately linked to every citizen of India.
The government should also look on the issue related to free accessibility of Constitution of India, printing in large numbers and its availability in various regional Indian languages.
[The article first appeared in Times of India with headline ‘No government policy on printing of Constitution of India, reveals RTI reply‘ on June 24,2015.]
(Rusen Kumar is the visionary entrepreneur, author and founder of India CSR Network and CSR Mart, regularly writes on Corporate Social Responsibility.)
