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allotted to the British Indian Provinces) were held in July-August
1946. The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim
League 73 seats and the small groups and independents got the
remaining 15 seats. However, the 93 seats allotted to the princely
states were not filled as they decided to stay away from the
Constituent Assembly.
Although the Constituent Assembly was not directly elected by
the people of India on the basis of adult franchise, the Assembly
comprised representatives of all sections of the Indian society–
Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Anglo-Indians, Indian Christians,
SCs, STs including women of all these sections. The Assembly
included all important personalities of India at that time, with the
WORKING OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on December 9,
1946. The Muslim League boycotted the meeting and insisted on
a separate state of Pakistan. The meeting was, thus, attended by
only 211 members. Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha, the oldest
member, was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly,
following the French practice.
Later, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President of the
Assembly. Similarly, both H.C. Mukherjee and V.T. Krishnamachari
were elected as the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly. In other
words, the Assembly had two Vice-Presidents.
Objectives Resolution
On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the historic
‘Objectives Resolution’ in the Assembly. It laid down the
fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure. It
read:
1. “This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn
resolve to proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign
Republic and to draw up for her future governance a
Constitution:
2. Wherein the territories that now comprise British India, the
territories that now form the Indian States and such other
parts of India as are outside India and the States as well as
other territories as are willing to be constituted into the
independent sovereign India, shall be a Union of them all;
and
3. wherein the said territories, whether with their present
boundaries or with such others as may be determined by the
Constituent Assembly and thereafter according to the law of
the Constitution, shall possess and retain the status of
autonomous units together with residuary powers and
exercise all powers and functions of Government and
administration save and except such powers and functions
4. wherein all power and authority of the sovereign
independent India, its constituent parts and organs of
Government are derived from the people; and
5. wherein shall be guaranteed and secured to all the people of
India justice, social, economic and political; equality of status
of opportunity, and before the law; freedom of thought,
expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and
action, subject to law and public morality; and
6. wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for
minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and
other backward classes; and
7. whereby shall be maintained the integrity of the territory of
the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air
according to justice and the law of civilized nations; and
8. This ancient land attains its rightful and honoured place in
the world and makes its full and willing contribution to the
promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind.”
This Resolution was unanimously adopted by the Assembly on
January 22, 1947. It influenced the eventual shaping of the
constitution through all its subsequent stages. Its modified version
forms the Preamble of the present Constitution.
Changes by the Independence Act
The representatives of the princely states, who had stayed away
from the Constituent Assembly, gradually joined it. On April 28,
1947, representatives of the six states5 were part of the Assembly.
After the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947, for
the partition of the country, the representatives of most of the
other princely states took their seats in the Assembly. The
members of the Muslim League from the Indian Dominion also
entered the Assembly.
The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the following three
changes in the position of the Assembly:
1. The Assembly was made a fully sovereign body, which could
frame any Constitution it pleased. The act empowered the
Assembly to abrogate or alter any law made by the British
Parliament in relation to India.
2. The Assembly also became a legislative body. In other
words, two separate functions were assigned to the
Assembly, that is, making of the Constitution for free India
and enacting of ordinary laws for the country. These two
tasks were to be performed on separate days. Thus, the
Assembly became the first Parliament of free India
(Dominion Legislature). Whenever the Assembly met as the
Constituent body it was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and
when it met as the legislative body6 , it was chaired by G.V.
Mavlankar. These two functions continued till November 26,
1949, when the task of making the Constitution was over.
3. The Muslim League members (hailing from the areas7
included in the Pakistan) withdrew from the Constituent
Assembly for India. Consequently, the total strength of the
Assembly came down to 299 as against 389 originally fixed
in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan. The strength of the
Indian provinces (formerly British Provinces) was reduced
from 296 to 229 and those of the princely states from 93 to
70. The state-wise membership of the Assembly as on
December 31, 1947, is shown in Table 2.4 of this chapter.
Other Functions Performed
In addition to the making of the Constitution and enacting of
ordinary laws, the Constituent Assembly also performed the
following functions:
1. It ratified the India’s membership of the Commonwealth in
May 1949.
2. It adopted the national flag on July 22, 1947.
3. It adopted the national anthem on January 24, 1950.
4. It adopted the national song on January 24, 1950.
5. It elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India
on January 24, 1950.
In all, the Constituent Assembly had 11 sessions over two
years, 11 months and 18 days. The Constitution-makers had gone
through the Constitutions of about 60 countries, and the Draft
Constitution was considered for 114 days. The total expenditure
incurred on making the Constitution amounted to ₹64 lakh.
On January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly held its final
session. It, however, did not end, and continued as the provisional
parliament of India from January 26, 1950, till the formation of new
COMMITTEES OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The Constituent Assembly appointed a number of committees to
deal with different tasks of constitution-making. Out of these, eight
were major committees and the others were minor committees.
The names of these committees and their Chairman are given
below:
Major Committees
1. Union Powers Committee - Jawaharlal Nehru
2. Union Constitution Committee -Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Provincial Constitution Committee -Sardar Patel
4. Drafting Committee - Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
5. Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and
Tribal and Excluded Areas - Sardar Patel. This committee
had the following five sub-committees:
(a) Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee - J.B. Kripalani
(b) Minorities Sub-Committee - H.C. Mukherjee
(c) North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded &
Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee -Gopinath
Bardoloi
(d) Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than those
in Assam) Sub-Committee - A.V. Thakkar
(e) North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee8a
6. Rules of Procedure Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
7. States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) -
Jawaharlal Nehru
8. Steering Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Minor Committees
1. Finance and Staff Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
2. Credentials Committee - Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar
3. House Committee - B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya
4. Order of Business Committee - Dr. K.M. Munshi
5. Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag - Dr. Rajendra
Prasad
6. Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly -
G.V. Mavalankar
7. Ad-hoc Committee on the Supreme Court - S. Varadachari
(Not an Assembly Member)
8. Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces - B. Pattabhi
Sitaramayya
9. Expert Committee on the Financial Provisions of the Union
Constitution -Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (Not an Assembly
Member)
10. Linguistic Provinces Commission - S.K. Dar (Not an
Assembly Member)
11. Special Committee to Examine the Draft Constitution -
Jawaharlal Nehru
12. Press Gallery Committee - Usha Nath Sen
13. Ad-hoc Committee on Citizenship - S. Varadachari (Not an
Assembly Member)
Drafting Committee
Among all the committees of the Constituent Assembly, the most
important committee was the Drafting Committee set up on
August 29, 1947. It was this committee that was entrusted with the
task of preparing a draft of the new Constitution. It consisted of
seven members. They were:
1. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman)
2. N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar
3. Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar
4. Dr. K.M. Munshi
5. Syed Mohammad Saadullah
6. N. Madhava Rau (He replaced B.L. Mitter who resigned due
to ill-health)
7. T.T. Krishnamachari (He replaced D.P. Khaitan who died in
1948)
The Drafting Committee, after taking into consideration the
proposals of the various committees, prepared the first draft of the
Constitution of India, which was published in February, 1948. The
people of India were given eight months to discuss the draft and
propose amendments. In the light of the public comments,
criticisms and suggestions, the Drafting Committee prepared a
second draft, which was published in October, 1948.
The Drafting Committee took less than six months to prepare
ENACTMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar introduced the final draft of the Constitution in
the Assembly on November 4, 1948 (first reading). The Assembly
had a general discussion on it for five days (till November 9,
1948).
The second reading (clause by clause consideration) started on
November 15, 1948, and ended on October 17, 1949. During this
stage, as many as 7653 amendments were proposed and 2473
were actually discussed in the Assembly.
The third reading of the draft started on November 14, 1949.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar moved a motion–‘the Constitution as settled by
the Assembly be passed’. The motion on Draft Constitution was
declared as passed on November 26, 1949, and received the
signatures of the members and the president. Out of a total 299
members of the Assembly, only 284 were actually present on that
day and signed the Constitution. This is also the date mentioned
in the Preamble as the date on which the people of India in the
Constituent Assembly adopted, enacted and gave to themselves
this Constitution.
The Constitution as adopted on November 26, 1949,
contained a Preamble, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules. The
Preamble was enacted after the entire Constitution was already
enacted.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the then Law Minister, piloted the Draft
Constitution in the Assembly. He took a very prominent part in the
deliberations of the Assembly. He was known for his logical,
forceful and persuasive arguments on the floor of the Assembly.
He is recognised as the ‘Father of the Constitution of India’. This
brilliant writer, constitutional expert, undisputed leader of the
Scheduled Castes and the ‘chief architect of the Constitution of
ENFORCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION
Some provisions of the Constitution pertaining to citizenship,
elections, provisional parliament, temporary and transitional
provisions, and short title contained in Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60,
324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388, 391, 392 and 393 came into force
on November 26, 1949, itself.
The remaining provisions (the major part) of the Constitution
came into force on January 26, 1950. This day is referred to in the
Constitution as the ‘date of its commencement’, and celebrated as
the Republic Day.
January 26 was specifically chosen as the ‘date of
commencement’ of the Constitution because of its historical
importance. It was on this day in 1930 that Purna Swaraj day was
celebrated, following the resolution of the Lahore Session
(December 1929) of the INC.
With the commencement of the Constitution, the Indian
Independence Act of 1947 and the Government of India Act of
1935, with all enactments amending or supplementing the latter
EXPERTS COMMITTEE OF THE CONGRESS
While elections to the Constituent Assembly were still in progress,
on July 8, 1946, the Congress Party (Indian National Congress)
appointed an Experts Committee for the purpose of preparing
material for the Constituent Assembly. This committee consisted
of the following members8b :
1. Jawaharlal Nehru (Chairman)
2. M. Asaf Ali
3. K.M. Munshi
4. N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar
5. K.T. Shah
6. D.R. Gadgil
7. Humayun Kabir
8. K. Santhanam
Later, on the Chairman’s proposal, it was resolved that Krishna
Kripalani be co-opted as member and convener of the committee.
The committee had two sittings, the first at New Delhi from July
20 to 22, 1946, and the second at Bombay from August 15 to 17,
1946.
Apart from a number of notes prepared by its members, the
committee discussed the procedure to be adopted by the
Constituent Assembly, the question of the appointment of various
committees and the draft of a resolution on the objectives of the
constitution to be moved during the first session of the Constituent
Assembly8c .
On the role played by this committee in the making of the
Constitution, Granville Austin, a British constitutional expert,
observed: “It was the Congress Experts Committee that set India
on the road to her present Constitution. The committee members,
working within the framework of the Cabinet Mission Scheme,
made general suggestions about autonomous areas, the powers
of provincial Governments and the Centre, and about such issues
as the princely states and the amending power. They also drafted
CRITICISM OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
The critics have criticised the Constituent Assembly on various
grounds. These are as follows:
1. Not a Representative Body: The critics have argued that the
Constituent Assembly was not a representative body as its
members were not directly elected by the people of India on
the basis of universal adult franchise.
2. Not a Sovereign Body: The critics maintained that the
Constituent Assembly was not a sovereign body as it was
created by the proposals of the British Government. Further,
they said that the Assembly held its sessions with the
permission of the British Government.
3. Time Consuming: According to the critics, the Constituent
Assembly took unduly long time to make the Constitution.
They stated that the framers of the American Constitution
took only four months to complete their work8e. In this
context, Naziruddin Ahmed, a member of the Constituent
Assembly, coined a new name for the Drafting Committee to
show his contempt for it. He called it a “Drifting
Committee”.
4. Dominated by Congress: The critics charged that the
Constituent Assembly was dominated by the Congress
party. Granville Austin, an American Constitutional expert,
remarked: ‘The Constituent Assembly was a one-party body
in an essentially one-party country. The Assembly was the
Congress and the Congress was India’9 .
5. Lawyer-Politician Domination: It is also maintained by the