Fundamental rights are provided under the part 3 of the Indian constitution .These rights can be simply defined as basic, natural and inalienable rights. These rights to be so declared as fundamental and very essential was for the reason that , human liberty, social life and personality be developed as well as to allow the development of basic values being cherished by the people of India since the ancient times , a calculated move ,meant to protect the dignity of the individual and create a favourable environment for human development.

There was a great deal saved by the declaration of the fundamental rights , where especially it became clear that the main aim saved was to protect individuals from state intervention into some of the basic inalienable rights of human beings that are inherited by the virtue of being a human being and a basic fundamentals in determining the basic life of a human being.

That's to remove the natural rights from political controversies , most of them have been adopted by the part three of the Indian constitution and been declared to be fundamental. Being in such a manner , fundamental rights are prospective in operation, meaning to say that , as they were enacted by the constitutional enactment in 26th January 1950, they wee made available to the people prior to the commencement of the constitution.

Fundamental Rights, Being Prospective In Operation

The basic idea here follows that , the fundamental rights having came into effect with the commencement of the Indian constitution , the prospective operation system states that acts or any other transactions completed before the commencement of the constitution with the fundamental rights , cannot be invoked and the validity of the same cannot be assessed using the fundamental rights as a touchstone but rather uses the laws which were in force at that time of the commission of those acts or in the processing of such a transaction.

Article 13 clause one of the Indian constitution, even states in demonstrating the prospective nature in operation of the fundamental rights that:
"all laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of the constitution shall to the extent of such inconsistency void. That's an analysis to the laws in force prior to the commencement of the constitution will be made , an effort to remove anything that goes against fundamental rights.

This becomes, crystal clear that fundamental rights are prospective in operation not retrospective. The Supreme Court of India in the case of Keshavan Madhava Menon V. State of Bombay even held that the article 13 clause 1 could not apply to the cases committed before the commencement of the constitution.

The Prospective Nature Of Fundamental Rights And Void Ab Initio Doctrine

The provisions under clause one of article 13 of the Indian constitution did not specifically make the laws enforce during the commencement of the constitution ,void ab initio but created a scenario where anything inconsistent with the fundamental rights cannot be claimed after the commencement of the constitution and thus, the laws could remain with force until anything that draws the attention to the dispute between fundamental rights and the laws enforce before the commencement of the constitution evolves.

It that's follows the idea that the present law cannot follow an unconstitutional procedure laid down by the laws in force before the commencement of the constitution , the constitutional procedure in matters of fundamental rights always prevails.

Conclusion
It is therefore of no doubt to argue that , fundamental rights are prospective in their operation as they do not seek to attach to themselves anything that was before the commencement of the Indian constitution ,and their boundaries begins with the commencement of the constitution.

Written By: Evans Ncube, second year Ba LLB, Lovely professional University