-
Overview
- 1934: idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward for the first time by M. N. Roy
- 1935: INC, for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India
- 1938: Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected based on adult franchise.
- 1940: The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.
- 1942: In 1942, Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of the cabinet, came to India with a draft proposal of the British Government on the framing of an independent Constitution to be adopted after the World War II. The Cripps Proposals were rejected by the Muslim League which wanted India to be divided into two autonomous states with two separate Constituent Assemblies. Finally, a Cabinet Mission (1946) was sent to India. While it rejected the idea of two Constituent Assemblies, it put forth a scheme for the Constituent Assembly which satisfied the Muslim League.
- 1946: Constituent Assembly formed under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.
- Dec 9, 1946: First meeting of constituent assembly, boycotted by Muslim League, Dr. Sachchidanand Sinha, the oldest member, was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly, following the French practice.
- Dec 11, 1946: Dr. Rajendra Prasad and H C Mukherjee were elected as the President and Vice-President of the Assembly respectively. Sir B N Rau was appointed as the Constitutional advisor to the Assembly.
- Dec 13, 1946: Jawaharlal Nehru moved Objective Resolution in the Assembly. 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.
- Feb 1948: First draft of constitution presented by the drafting committee
- Oct 1948: Second draft of constitution presented by the drafting committee.
- The Constitution as adopted on November 26, 1949, contained a Preamble, 395 Articles and 8 Schedules.
- 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.
-
Composition of the Constituent Assembly
The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan. The features of the scheme were:
- Total 389 members,
296 to be elected from British India (elections held in July–August 1946),
93 from princely states (nominated by heads of princely states) - British India
- 11 Governor Provinces (Madras, Bombay, U P , Bihar, Central Provinces, Orissa, Punjab, NWFP, Sindh, Bengal and Assam.): 292 members
- 4 Chief Commissioner Provinces (Delhi, Ajmer–Merwara, Coorg and British Baluchistan): 4 members
- For all provinces as well as princely states seats were allotted as per population. One seat per million people.
- Seats in British India were to be divided among Muslims, Sikhs and Others depending on their respective population.
- The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
- 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 they gradually joined and till 1947, almost all princely states joined).
- 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 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 exception of Mahatma Gandhi and M A Jinnah.
It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly was to be a partly elected and partly nominated body. Moreover, the members were to be indirectly elected by the members of the provincial assemblies, who themselves were elected on a limited franchise. (The Government of India Act of 1935 granted limited franchise based on tax, property and education.)
- Total 389 members,
-
Working of the constituent Assembly
First Meeting
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 Sachchidan-and Sinha, the oldest member, was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly, following the French practice.
- Later, on December 11, 1946, Dr Rajendra Prasad and H C Mukherjee were elected as the President and Vice-President of the Assembly respectively. Sir B N Rau was appointed as the Constitutional advisor to the Assembly.
- On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the historic ‘Objectives Resolution’
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 states (Baroda, Bikaner, Jaipur, Patiala, Rewa and Udaipur) were part of the Assembly.
After the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947 for a 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.
- Changes in the constituent assembly due to Independence Act, 1947
-
Other Functions Performed
- In addition to the making of the Constitution and enacting of ordinary laws, the Constituent Assembly
also performed the following functions:
- It ratified the India’s membership of the Commonwealth in May 1949.
- It adopted the national flag on July 22, 1947.
- It adopted the national anthem on January 24, 1950.
- It adopted the national song on January 24, 1950.
- 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 Parliament (The Provisional Parliament ceased to exist on April 17, 1952. The first elected Parliament with the two Houses came into being in May 1952.) after the first general elections in 1951–52.
Making of the Constitution (Notes)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment