INDIAN CONSTITUTION

• It is the foundation law of any country, which lays down the principles and
framework upon which the State is based
• It is the supreme law book of the country.
• Constitutions are classified as a Written Constitution (E.g. Indian Constitution)
(b) Unwritten Constitution (E.g. British Constitution). The Indian Constitution
is the lengthiest written Constitution.
• The idea to have a Constitution was put forward in 1934, by M.N. Roy, an
eminent communist of the time. Later this idea was officially adopted by INC
in 1935. The British government accepted this demand for the first time in
August Offer' of 1940.
• The Constitution of India was adopted by the people of India on 26 November,
1949.
• It came into full operation on 26 January, 1950.
• The original Constitution had 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules. Currently
it has 448 articles, 12 schedules and 24 parts.
• The present Constitution was framed by the Constituent Assembly of India
setup under Cabinet Mission Plan on 16 May, 1946.

• 42nd Amendment is called the Mini Constitution owing to the vast number of
changes made in this act.
 Composition of Constituent Assembly
• Total strength of the assembly was 389, of this, 296 were elected to represent
British India (292 from 11 governors' provinces and four from four chief
commissioners' provinces of Delhi, Ajmer- Marwar, Coorg and British
Baluchistan).
• Seats in each province were distributed among three main communities -
Muslims, Sikhs and General in proportion to their population.
• Remaining 93 seats were for the Princely states. These 93 seats allotted to
princely states remained empty as they decided to stay away from the assembly.
 MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION
• Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on 9 December, 1946; Muslim
league boycotted this (87) meeting, so only 211 members attended this
meeting.
• Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha, the senior most member of the assembly was
elected the President, on 9 December, while later on 11 December, Dr.
Rajendra Prasad and H.C. Mookerjee were elected the President and Vice
President of the assembly respectively.
• J.L. Nehru on 13 December, 1946 moved the Objective Resolution. It
unanimously got accepted on 22 January, 1947. This resolution later got
placed in the Constitution as the Preamble.
• B.N. Rao was appointed as the Constitutional adviser of the Assembly.
• It took 2 years, 11 months and 18 days to make the Constitution. (11 session)
• The Constituent Assembly had 13 committees for framing the
Constitution. The important ones were:
 Committees Headed By
Union Powers Committee J.L. Nehru
States Committee J.L. Nehru
Union Constitution Committee J.L. Nehru
Drafting Committee B.R. Ambedkar
Provincial Constitution Committee Sardar V.B. Patel
Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights Sardar V B. Patel

Steering Committee Dr. Rajendra Prasad

Finance and Staff Committee Dr Rajendra Prasad
 Credential Committee Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer
House Committee Pattabhi Sitaramayya
Order of Business Committee KM Munshi
Flag Committee Rajendra Prasad
• Responsibility to draft the constitutional document was with the Drafting
Committee on 29th Aug 1974. Its members were:
(a) Dr BR Ambedkar - Chairman
(b) N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar
(C) Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer (a distinguished Jurist)
(d) KM. Munshi (a distinguished Jurist)
(e) Syed Muhammad Saadullah
(f) N Madhav Rao (in place of B.L. Mitra)
(g) D.P. Khaitan (T. Krishnamachari after Khaitan's death in 1948)
• The drafting committee took less than six months to prepare the draft
Constitution
• Provisions relating to citizenship. Elections and provisional Parliament were
implemented immediately. Rest of the provisions came into force on 26
January, 1950. The date of 26 January was chosen to commemorate the
Poorna Swaraj declaration of independence in 1930 (Poorna Swaraj
declaration was passed in 1929 in Lahore session of INC).
 Interim Government of India
• The Interim government of India was formed on 2 September, to assist in the
task of transfer of power from the British to Independent India. It was formed
from the newly elected Constituent Assembly of India.

Members Portfolio Held

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Vice President of the Executive Council,
External Affairs and Commonwealth
Relations
Vallabhbhai Patel Home, Information and Broadcasting
Baldev Singh Defence
Dr. John Mithai Industries and supplies
C. Rajagopalachari Education
C.H Bhabha Works, Mines and Power
Rajendra Prasad Food and Agriculture
Asaf Ali Railways
Jagjivan Ram Labour
Liaqat Ali Finance
TT Chundrigar Commerce
Abdur Rab Nistar Communication
Gazanfar Ali khan Health
Jogendra Nath Mandal Law