By- PROF. (DR) V. VIJAYAKUMAR

The existence of healthy conventions has mattered in the meaningful working of a constitution, and certainly has played a significant role even in states having written
Constitution. Both the Constitution and their conventions thus remain inseparable parts of a system, each helping the other to induce birth, development, maturity and change with the passage of time. This being a case in modern constitutional law domain, constitutional conventions should be playing a significant role in every constitution, written or unwritten. Apart from providing a few definitions of constitutional conventions, their relevance even in a written constitution and the merits or advantages of constitutional conventions
are discussed in brief in this paper. The specific constitutional conventions on the relations between the President and the Parliament in the context of the Constituent Assembly Debates in favour of developing such valid constitutional conventions are mentioned in this paper. Followed by this, the paper describes the constitutional conventions relating to the two Houses of Parliament and the conventions relating to the Presiding Officers and the Privileges of the Houses. The judicial responses to the constitutional conventions also form part of this paper. The need for developing constitutional conventions in accordance with Article 13 (3) that provides for ‘custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law’ and emphasise in the conclusion that the conventions are the very soul and spirit of law, life and democracy under the Constitution of India.