The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

202 The Common Law in Indiain interpreting the Constitution and in issues raisingconflicts between the general and regional governmentsand the executive and the citizen. It is thetradition, in any event in countries which have comeunder the influence of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, forthe judges to regard themselves as impartial interpreters,holding the balance even between the claimson the one hand of the general government and onthe other of the regional governments and betweenthe citizen and the legislature or the executive. Sodeeply has the Indian judiciary been imbued withthese traditions that judges, who had expressed theirviews on certain aspects of the Constitution beforetheir appointment, have in the consciousness of theirjudicial role of impartiality been led to modify andchange them.BILL OF RIGHTSA vital difference between the English and Indianconstitutional systems is the incorporation in theIndian Constitution of a Bill of Rights.In England fundamental liberties are protected notby a specific law but by a powerful public opinion.These liberties have remained unshaken in Englandthough theoretically they could be affected and evendestroyed by an Act of Parliament. But Parliamentitself has fought for these liberties on behalf of thepeople against royal absolutism and has been a powerfulforce in the creation and maintenance of theseliberties. " The English lawyer thinks of democracynot in terms of fundamental legal principles. Hehas never tried to express, and does not think of