Nehru Report: the First demand of Fundamental Rights

Part III of our constitution, which contains fundamental rights, has been described as the magna carta of India. Fundamental Rights are certain secured and guaranteed rights, which are generally considered inherent in man and cannot be taken away by the state. The fundamental rights are also called the natural rights which command higher sanctity than other rights such as legal rights.

When the Constitution of India was being drafted by the Constituent Assembly, it had already become clear that the fundamental rights were going to be an integral part of Indian Constitution, because throughout the freedom struggle, the demand for fundamental rights had been on the forefront.

In the Madras session of 1927, a resolution was adopted to draft a “Swaraj Constitution” for India. The Motilal Nehru Report of 1928 thus came up with the following observation:

It is obvious that our first care should be to have our fundamental rights guaranteed in a manner which will not permit their withdrawal under any circumstances.

Thus, the Nehru Report demanded inalienable fundamental rights for the people of India. It was basically inspired by the American bill of rights, which had a great impact on the thinking of Indian Leaders. The Nehru report was discarded by Simon Commission.