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POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA

SUBJECT: POLITICAL SCIENCE
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY – COMPOSITION, IDEOLOGICAL MOORINGS,
CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATES

INTRODUCTION
The idea with respect to formation of the Constituent Assembly (CA) was first
proposed by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of communist movement in India. Although
the Indian National Congress demanded for CA way back in 1935; it was
accepted and approved by British Government only first under ‘August Offer’
(1940), where they proposed to set up a constitutional consultative body or
committee after the WW II.
It was followed by the ‘Cripps Mission’ under Sir Stafford Cripps in 1942 who
came to India with another draft proposal (August Offer failed) to form an
independent constituent assembly after the war. However, the Cripps proposal
was rejected by Muslim League who wanted British India to be divided into two
autonomous units. Thus, the proposal also failed.
In 1946, British PM Clement Atlee then sent three members from his own
cabinet to negotiate with Indians with respect to the formation of CA, which
came to be known as Cabinet Mission.
The members of the cabinet were:
Pethick Lawrence
A.V. Alexander
Strafford Cripps
The provisions of the Cabinet Mission was more or less accepted by both INC
and Muslim League, even though it rejected Muslim League’s demand for an
autonomous unit.

COMPOSITION OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

The Constituent Assembly was established in November 1946 as per the
provisions of Cabinet Mission. The features of the composition are as follows:
1. The Cabinet Mission provided for a loose federation of British India
provinces and princely states. Hence, out of the total strength of 389

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representatives, 293 seats were allotted to British provinces (11

Governor’s provinces and 4 chief commissioner provinces).
2. The seats in the CA are allocated to each province and princely states
with respect to the proportion of its population.
3. Seats allocated in the provinces under British India, were to be divided
amongst the three main communities of the region – Muslim, Sikhs and
general, in proportion to the population.
4. The representatives from the British provinces were to be elected by the
respective provincial legislative councils by the method of proportional
representation by means of single transferrable vote.
5. And the representatives from the Indian princely states were nominated
by the head.
The Constituent Assembly was thus a partly elected and partly nominated body.

NOTE: When the first meeting was held in December 1946, only 211
members attended the meeting as it was boycotted by Muslim league and
princely states refused to join.

Few facts about the composition of Constituent Assembly

Dr Sachchidanand 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
and H.C. Mukherjee and V.T. Krishnamachari were elected as the Vice-
Presidents of the Assembly.

OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION:
The objective resolution drafted and moved by Jawaharlal Nehru on 13th
December 1946, was a landmark document as it represented the ideals,
philosophy and fundamental principles that were aspired to be incorporated in
the Constitution for the independent India.
This objective resolution thus, depicted the basic constitutional structure and
pattern. The document was unanimously adopted by the Assembly on 22nd
January 1947. The Preamble is the modified and shorter version of the
objective resolution.

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It reads as follows:
“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 of a Constitution.
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 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 as are vested in or assigned to
the Union or as are inherent or implied in the Union or resulting
therefrom;
And wherein all power and authority of the Sovereign Independent India,
its constituent parts and organs of Government are derived from the
people; and
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
Wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward
and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes; and
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
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.”

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COMPOSITION OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

With the finalization of the independence of India through Indian Independence
Act, the princely states which earlier stayed away from the constituent
assembly, eventually joined it.
The Indian Independence Act 1947 brought changes as follows in the
composition and structure of Constituent Assembly:
The Assembly became the sovereign body to draft constitution for the
independent India and had the power to abolish/refuse or alter any
legislation made by British govt. with respect to India.
The Assembly thus, was also given the responsibility to frame laws for
the dominion India and therefore it performed two separate functions, one
as a legislative body and the second as the body responsible for framing
the constitution. When the Assembly used to assemble as a Constituent
body, it was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and G V Malvankar chaired
the assembly when it assembled as a legislative body.
The membership of the Constituent Assembly reduced from 389 to 299
as the members of the Muslim League belonging from the provinces in
Pakistan withdrew from the Assembly. The strength of the British
provinces under independent India’s jurisdiction also came down (from
296 to 229) and those of princely states from 93 to 70.
Along with framing the Constitution and enacting legislations, the
Constituent Assembly was also involved in performing varieties of
important functions like:
It ratified the India’s membership to Commonwealth in May 1949.
It adopted the national flag on July 22, 1947.
It adopted the national anthem and national song on January 24,
1950.
It elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India on
January 24,1950.
It took 11 sessions and two years, 11 months and 18 days for the Constituent
Assembly to frame the Constitution for India. The Constitution was adopted and
enacted on 26th November 1949 and the date for commencement of the
Constitution is 26th January 1950.

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The Constituent body has its final session in January 1950, however, it
continued as the provisional or interim Parliament and government till the
formation of new Parliament elected by the people of India based on Universal
Adult Franchise. The first general elections of Independent India took place in
1951-52.

ENACTMENT OF THE CONSTITUITON

B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman of the Drafting Committee) introduced the final draft
of the Constitution in the Assemble for approval. After three readings of the
draft (which involved debates and deliberations, opposition and amendments of
various provisions in the Constitutional draft), the final draft of the Constitution
was accepted/approved on 26 November 1949. This was the day, when the
Constitution got its final seal and was signed by the present 284 members of
the Constituent Assembly.

NOTE: The Constitution was enacted/adopted on 26th November 1949. It

contained a Preamble (which was enacted after the enactment of the
Constitution), 395 articles and 8 Schedules.

NOTE: B.R Ambedkar was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee. He is also
refereed as the ‘Modern Man’ or ‘Father/Chief Architect of Indian Constitution’

ENFORCEMENT OF CONSTITUTION
Few provisions of the constitution pertaining to citizenship, elections, provisional
parliament etc. were enforced before the actual commencement of the
constitution i.e. on 26th November 1949 as they were needed for starting up
the administration, to establish a citizen mandated government and Parliament
i.e. to hold general elections etc.
The Articles enforced were 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388,
391, 392 and 393.
However, the rest of the constitution was commenced on 26th January 1950.
This is the date when ‘Republic Day’ is also celebrated with much fanfare as
the country got real freedom only when its constitution was ready as it gave
meaning to the lives of citizens and the freedom they fought for from British.

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26th January was specifically chosen as the date of commencement as it is

also the date on which the oath for Purna Swaraj (Complete independence)
was taken and celebrated in 1930 after the resolution by INC’s Lahore session
in 1929.
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 Act, were repealed. The Abolition of
Privy Council Jurisdiction Act (1949) (privy purse was compensatory payment
made to rulers of erstwhile princely states who lost their ruling rights post
joining with India) was however continued.
Privy purse was finally discontinued in 1971 under 26th Constitutional
Amendment Act.

CRITICISMS FOR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY:

1. Critics argued that the constituent assembly was not a representative
body as the members were not directly elected by the people of India on
the basis of universal adult franchise.
2. Critics also believed that the constituent assembly was not an
autonomous and sovereign body as it was created as per the proposals
formulated by British.
3. The critics also mocked the amount of time, constitution makers took to
frame the constitution for India. Naziruddin Ahmed, one of the member
constituent assembly also called drafting committee as the ‘drifting
committee”.
4. The constituent assembly was also criticized for its domination by the
members of the Congress party. Granville Austin said: ‘The Constituent
Assembly was a one-party body in an essentially one-party country. The
Assembly was the Congress and the Congress was India’
5. As per few critics, the CA had majority of Hindus and was thus
dominated by members invariably belonging from only one religion. Lord
Viscount Simon called it ‘a body of Hindus’. Similarly, Winston Churchill
commented that the Constituent Assembly represented ‘only one major
community in India’.

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NOTE:
Elephant was the official seal of the Constituent Assembly.
B.N Rau was appointed as the constitutional (legal) adviser to CA.
The Indian Constitution—Cornerstone of a Nation is written by Granville
Austin in 1966.

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