MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION

Idea of constitution - 1934 - M N Rao, pioneer of the communist movement in

India.

• 1935- INC officially demanded the formation of constituent assembly.

• Demand was accepted in August Offer - INC rejected it.
• The present constitution assembly of India setup under Cabinet Mission Plan of
may 1946.
• Total strength - 389 (296 + 93). Out of 296, 292 from 11 governor's provinces
and 4 from chief commissioner's provinces (Delhi, Ajmer-Marwar,Coorg and
British Baluchistan). 296 - 208(INC) + 73(Muslim League) + 15 (others). The
communities were muslim, sikh and general.
• Representatives of princely states were to be nominated by the heads of
princely states.
• Members of each community in the Provincial Legislative Assembly elected
their own representatives by the method of proportional representatives with
single transferable vote.
• Constituent Assembly was a partly elected and partly nominated body the
members were Indirectly Elected by the members of the provincial Assemblies,
who themselves were elected on a limited franchise.
• 1st meeting - 9th December, 1946 - Muslim league boycotted. (only 211
members participated).
• Sachidanand Sinha, the oldest member was made the temporary president on
French Practice.
• On 11 dec, 1946-Rajendra Prasad elected as president of constituent assembly.
• Vice president - HC Mukherjee and VT Krishnamchari.
• British PM during independence - Clement Atlee.
• Dickie Bird Plan - by Mountbatten - aka Plan Balkan and Ismay Plan. Under it,
first independent all the individual states and then they will decide whether to
join the constituent assembly or not. (Balkanisation - fragmentation of a region
into smaller often hostile parts, derived from the balkan region of Europe) -
Nehru opposed it.
• Changes in constituent assembly due to independence act - assembly became
sovereign and could abrogate and alter any law made by british in relation to
India; assembly also became a legislative body which was chaired by GV
 Mavalankar; muslim league withdrew due to which strength came down to 299
from 389 (princely states - 93 to 70), (Indian provinces-229 to 296).
• Two Separate functions were assigned to the Assembly, that is, making of a
constitution for free India and enacting of ordinary laws for the country. These
two were to be performed on separate days. Thus the Assembly became the
first Parliament of free India(dominion legislature).
• Assembly ratified the India's membership of commonwealth in 1949 may.
• Adopted the national flag on 22nd july, 1947.
• Adopted national anthem, national song and elected Rajendra Prasad as the
President of India on 24th Jan, 1950.
• 11 sessions in 2 years, 11 months and 18 days.
• Total 15 articles related to citizenship, elections, provisional parliament etc
were eneacted on 26 nov 1949. ( 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60, 324, 366, 367, 379, 380, 388,
391, 393)
• Elephant was the symbol/seal of the Constitution.
• BN Rau - constitutional advisor
• H V R Iyengar - secretary of the constituent assembly.
• S N Mukherjee - chief draftsman of the constitution
• Calligrapher of Indian Constitution (English) - Prem Bihari Narain Raizada
• Decorated the Indian Constitution (English) - Beohar Rammanohar Sinha
• Calligrapher of Indian Constitution (Hindi) - Vasant Krishna Vaidya
• Decorated the Indian Constitution (Hindi) - Nand Lal Bose
• The decorators were from Shantiniketan.
• The Constituent Assembly appointed a total of 22 committees to deal with
different tasks of constitution-making. Out of these, Nine were major committees
and the others were minor committees.

Major Committees

Drafting Committee – B. R. Ambedkar

Union Power Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru

Union Constitution Committee – Jawaharlal Nehru

Provincial Constitution Committee – Vallabhbhai Patel

Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded

Areas – Vallabhbhai Patel. This committee had the following subcommittees:

Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee – J. B. Kripalani

Minorities Sub-Committee – Harendra Coomar Mookerjee,

North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas
Sub-Committee – Gopinath Bordoloi

Rules of Procedure Committee – Rajendra Prasad

States Committee (Committee for negotiating with states) - Jawaharlal Nehru

Steering Committee – Rajendra Prasad

MINOR COMMITTEES

National Flag and HOC Committee – Rajendra Prasad

Committee for the function of the Constitution Assembley - G V Mavlankar

House Committee - B Pattabhi Sitaramayya

Language Committee - Moturi Satyanarayana

Order of Business Committee - K M Munshi

Among all the committees of the Constituent Assembly, the most imp committee
was the Drafting Committee.

The Drafting Committee had seven members: Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, N.

Gopalaswami; B.R. Ambedkar, K.M Munshi, Mohammad Saadulla, B.L. Mitter and
D.P. Khaitan. the Drafting Committee elected B.R Ambedkar as its Chairman.

ENACTMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 26 November

1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950 (In 1929 on this day Indian
National Congress demanded “Poorna Swaraj” in Lahore session under
J.L.Nehru).The constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the
country's fundamental governing document, and the Dominion of India became
the Republic of India. To ensure constitutional autochthony, its framers repealed
prior acts of the British parliament in Article 395.India celebrates its constitution
on 26 January as Republic Day.

SCHEDULES IN CONSTITUTION
There are 12 Schedules in the Constitution of India. Later, when the Indian
Constitution was adopted in 1949, it consisted of 8 Schedules. Today, with the
amendments in the Indian Constitution, there are a total of 12 Schedules.

First Schedule of Indian Constitution- contains the name of States and Union
Territories.

Second Schedule of Indian Constitution -The provisions in relation to allowances,

privileges, emoluments of:

President of India, Governors of Indian States, Speaker of Lok Sabha & Deputy
Speaker of Lok Sabha, Chairman of Rajya Sabha & Deputy Chairman of Rajya
Sabha, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assemblies of Indian States,
Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Legislative Councils of the Indian States,
Supreme Court Judges, High Court Judges, Comptroller & Auditor General of India
(CAG).
Third Schedule- contains the forms of oath and affirmation for: Union Ministers of
India, Parliament Election Candidates, Members of Parliament (MPs), Supreme
Court Judges, Comptroller and Auditor General, State Ministers, State Legislature
Elections’ Candidates, State Legislature Members, High Court Judges.

Fourth Schedule- contains the provisions in relation to the allocation of seats for
States and Union Territories in the Rajya Sabha.

Fifth Schedule- contains provisions in relation to the administration and control of

scheduled areas and scheduled tribes.

Sixth Schedule contains provisions in relation to the administration of tribal areas

in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

Seventh Schedule-This schedule deals with the three legislative lists:Union, State,
Concurrent.

Eight Schedule deals with the 22 official languages recognized by the Constitution
of India: Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri (Dongri) Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri
Konkani Mathili (Maithili) Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi
Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

21ST 1967 Amendment-sindhi was added

71st 1992 Amendment-konkani Manipuri and nepali added

92nd amendment 2003 santhali Maithili bodo and dogri were added

Ninth Schedule It deals with the state acts and regulations of that deal with land
reforms and abolition of the zamindari system.

Note: 1st Amendment Act 1951 added the Ninth Schedule to protect the laws
included in it from judicial scrutiny on the ground of violation of fundamental
rights. However, in 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the laws included in this
schedule after April 24, 1973, are now open to judicial review.

Tenth Schedule, It contains provisions relating to disqualification of the members

of Parliament and State Legislatures on the ground of defection.
Note: This schedule was added by the 52nd Amendment Act of 1985, also known
as Anti-defection Law.

Eleventh Schedule, It contains the provisions that specify the powers, authority
and responsibilities of Panchayats. It has 29 matters.

Note: This schedule was added by the 73rd Amendment Act of 1992

Twelfth Schedule It deals with the provisions that specify the powers, authority
and responsibilities of Municipalities. It has 18 matters.

Note: This schedule was added by the 74th Amendment Act of 1992