The Constitution Of India (COI)

The entire Constitution of India as a single JSON file

COI.json Structure

The entire COI.json file is an array with 3 elements:

• Element 1 (0th index): This is an array of all the Articles of the Constitution. Each Article is an object with key value pairs described below.
• Element 2 (1st index): This is an array of all the Parts of the Constitution. Each Part is an object with key value pairs described below.
• Element 3 (2nd index): This is an array of all the Schedules of the Constitution. Each Schedule is an object with key value pairs described below.

Articles

Each Article object has the following keys:

{
  "ArtNo": String,
  "Name": String,
  "SubHeading": String,
  "Status": String,
  "Explanations": Array,
  "ArtDesc": String,
  "Clauses": Array
}

ArtNo: String

Each article has a unique ArtNo which is a combination of number and uppercase alphabets. It can be used as the ID of each Article. Eg: 5, 31A, etc. It is always present.

Name: String

Each article has a Name key which acts like a short description of the Article. Eg: Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law., Equality before law., etc. It is always present.

SubHeading: String

Some Articles have a special SubHeading key which represent the SubHeading under which the Article is present in the Constitution. Eg: Right to Equality, Right against Exploitation, etc. It is NOT always present.

Status: String

The COI.json file also have some articles which have been omitted from the constitution. Such articles have a special key: Status which have the value of Omitted i.e., "Status": "Omitted". It is NOT always present.

Explanations: Array

Some Articles in the Indian Constitution have explanations in them. In COI.json these explanations are present in the Explanations key which is an array of objects. Each object of the array represents an explanation of the article. It is NOT always present.

Each explanation object in the Explanations array has the following keys:

{
  "ExplanationNo": String,
  "Explanation": String
}

ExplanationNo: String

Each explanation object in the Explanations array has the ExplanationNo key which is used to identify an explanation in an article. It consist of numbers.

Explanation: String

Each explanation object in the Explanations array has the Explanation key which contains the actual explanation of the article.

Example of the Explanations array:

...
"Explanations": [
  {
    "ExplanationNo": "1",
    "Explanation": "..."
  },
  {
    "ExplanationNo": "2",
    "Explanation": "..."
  }
]
...

ArtDesc: String

Most of the articles have a ArtDesc key which contains the information / details of the Article.
Name + ArtDesc + Explanations is the complete Article as present in the Constitution of India. It is NOT always present. If ArtDesc is not present the Clauses will be present.

Clauses: Array

Most of the articles have a Clauses key which is an array of objects. Each object of the array represents a clause of the article. Name + Clauses + Explanations is the complete Article as present in the Constitution of India. It is NOT always present. If Clauses is not present the ArtDesc will be present.

Each clause object in the Clauses array has the following keys:

{
  "ClauseNo": String,
  "ClauseDesc": String,
  "SubClauses": Array,
  "Status": String,
  "FollowUp": String
}

ClauseNo: String

Each clause has a ClauseNo key which can uniquely identify that clause in it's article i.e., each ClauseNo is unique only in its parent Article and clause belonging to different articles can have same ClauseNo. It is always present.

Status: String

The COI.json file also have some clauses which have been omitted from the constitution. Such clauses have a special key: Status which have the value of Omitted i.e., "Status": "Omitted". It is NOT always present.

ClauseDesc: String

Each Clause has a ClauseDesc key which either contains the entire clause or starting line of the Clauses which have Sub-Clause in them. It is always present.

SubClauses: Array

Some of the Clauses have a SubClauses key which is an array of objects. Each object of the array represents a Sub-Clause of that Clause. It is NOT always present.

Each Sub-Clause object in the SubClauses array has the following keys:

{
  "SubClauseNo": String,
  "SubClauseDesc": String,
  "Status": String,
}

SubClauseNo: String

Each Sub-Clause has a SubClauseNo key which can uniquely identify that Sub-Clause in it's parent Clause i.e., each SubClauseNo is unique only in its parent Clause and Sub-Clause belonging to different Clauses can have same SubClauseNo. SubClauseNo contains lowercase alphabets only, eg: a, f, etc .It is always present.

SubClauseDesc: String

Each Sub-Clause has a SubClauseDesc key which contains the entire Sub-Clause. It is always present.

Status: String

The COI.json file also have some Sub-Clauses which have been omitted from the constitution. Such Sub-Clauses have a special key: Status which have the value of Omitted i.e., "Status": "Omitted". It is NOT always present.

FollowUp: String

Some of the clause have an additional FollowUp key which contains information that is not part of any Sub-Clause and is present at the end of the Clause. They are only present if the SubClauses array is present and there is some general information related to the Clause in the Constitution of India.

Note: Each Article has only one of either Clauses or ArtDesc.
Note: Each Clause has a combination of both SubClauses and ClauseDesc. i.e., either clause will have a ClauseDesc and an additional SubClauses in it.
Note: Preamble is the first article in the list whit ArtNo: 0.

Complete Article Structure

{
  "ArtNo": String,
  "Name": String,
  "SubHeading": ? String,
  "ArtDesc": ? String,
  "Clauses": ? Array {
      "ClauseNo": String,
      "ClauseDesc": String,
      "SubClauses": ? Array {
          "SubClauseNo": String,
          "SubClauseDesc": String,
          "Status": ? String,
      },
      "Status": ? String,
      "FollowUp": ? String
  },
  "Status": ? String,
  "Explanations": ? Array {
      "ExplanationNo": String,
      "Explanation": String
  },
}

? : Optional Key.

Parts

Schedules

To Download from Command Line

1. For Linux / Mac use wget / curl

wget:

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json -O COI.json

curl:

$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json -o COI.json

2. For Windows use Invoke-WebRequest

Invoke-WebRequest https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json -O COI.json

The above commands will create a COI.json file(with all it's content) in the directory from which the command is executed.

Node.js sample script to Download COI.json

const { exec } = require('child_process'),
  { platform } = require('process'),
  url = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json';

if (platform === 'win32') {
  exec(`Invoke-WebRequest ${url} -O COI.json`, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (err) throw err
  });
} else if (platform === 'darwin') {
  exec(`curl ${url} -o COI.json`, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (err) throw err;
  });
} else {
  exec(`wget ${url} -O COI.json`, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
    if (err) throw err;
  });
}

The above script will create a COI.json file in the directory from which the script is executed. If the script is saved in a file called download_COI.js then the following command will execute it:

$ node download_COI.js

or can be automated by defining as a script in package.json:

For Linux(using wget):

...
"scripts": {
    "download_COI": "wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json -O COI.json"
    ...
  },
  ...

Execution:

npm run download_COI

For Windows use Invoke-WebRequest and for Mac use curl command.

Python sample script to Download COI.json

from subprocess import run, PIPE
from sys import platform
URL = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yash-Handa/The_Constitution_Of_India/master/COI.json'

test = None
if platform == 'linux' or platform == 'linux2':
    test = run(['wget', URL, '-O COI.json'], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
elif platform == 'darwin':
    test = run(['curl', URL, '-o COI.json'], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
elif platform == 'win32':
    test = run(['Invoke-WebRequest', URL, '-O COI.json'], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
test.check_returncode()

The above script will create a COI.json file in the directory from which the script is executed. If the script is saved in a file called download_COI.py then the following command will execute it:

$ python3 download_COI.py