Constituent Assembly of India

 

Introduction The first Constituent Assembly for undivided India was constituted in 9th November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan. The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitute of India.   The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place on December 9, 1946 at New Delhi with Dr Sachidanand being elected as the interim President of the Assembly. However, on December 11, 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as the President and H.C. Mukherjee as the Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly. The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the Constituent Assembly 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. Demand for constitutional assembly It was in 1934 that the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India was put forward for the first time by M.N. Roy, a pioneer of communist movement in India. In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India. In 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 on the basis of adult franchise’. The demand was finally accepted in principle by the British Government in what is known as the ‘August Offer’ of 1940. 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 was sent to India. While it rejected the idea of two Constituent Assemblies, it put forth a scheme for the Constituent Assembly which more or less satisfied the Muslim League. Composition of Constituent Assembly The assembly had 398 members out of which 292 members were elected through provincial assembly elections, 93 were members representing the Indian Princely states and 4 members represented the Chief Commissioners’ Provinces. The strength of the committee later reduced to 299 due to the India- Pakistan partition under the Mountbatten Plan of 3rd August 1947, and a separate constituent assembly was set up for them. Thus the membership of the committee was reduced to 299 members. The assembly's work had five stages: Committees presented reports on issues. B.N. Rau prepared an initial draft based on the reports and his research into the constitutions of other nations. The drafting committee, chaired by B.R. Ambedkar, presented a detailed draft constitution which was published for public discussion. The draft constitution was discussed, and amendments proposed and enacted. The constitution was adopted, with a committee of experts led by the Congress Party (known as the Congress Assembly Party) played a pivotal role. Functions of the Constituent Assembly Framing the Constitution. Enacting laws and involved in the decision-making process. It adopted the National flag on July 22, 1947. It accepted and approved India's membership of the British Commonwealth in May 1949. It elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India on January 24, 1950. It adopted the National anthem on January 24, 1950. It adopted the National song on January 24, 1950. 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. 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. v  This committee had the following five sub-committees: Ø  Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee - J.B. Kripalani Ø  Minorities Sub-Committee - H.C. Mukherjee Ø  North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee -Gopinath Bardoloi Ø  Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee - A.V. Thakkar Ø  North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee 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) Main feature of Constituent Assembly Every province and princely state were allotted seat in proportion to their population. The seat for British were divided among Muslims, Sikh and general.  The representative from each community were elected by voting in the provincial legislative It accepted and approved India's membership of the British Commonwealth assembly. The head of princely states nominated their member. Had 11 sessions over 2 years, 11 months and 18 days Constitution makers visited 60 countries.    Criticism of the Constituent Assembly Not a Popular body: Critics argued that the members of the Constituent Assembly were not directly elected by the people of India. The Preamble says that the Constitution has been adopted by the people of India, whereas it was adopted by only few individuals who were not even elected by the people. Not a Sovereign body: The critics stated that the Constituent Assembly was not a sovereign body as it was not created by the people of India. It was created by the proposals of the British rulers by executive action before India’s independence and its composition was determined by them. Time consuming: The critics maintained that the time taken to prepare the Constitution was too much in comparison to other nations. The framers of the US Constitution took only four months to prepare the Constitution. Dominated by Congress: The critics continued to argue that the Congress in the Constituent Assembly was quite dominating and imposed its thinking on the people of the country through the Constitution drafted by it. Dominated by one community: According to some critics, the Constituent Assembly lacked religious heterogeneity and was dominated by the Hindus. Dominated by Lawyers: Critics also argued that the Constitution became bulky and cumbersome due to dominance of lawyers in the Constituent Assembly. They have made the language of the Constitution difficult for a layman to understand. The other sections of the society couldn't voice their concerns and were unable to participate in the decision-making process during the time of drafting of the Constitution.                                             Read about features of Indian constitution.                                              Read about source of Indian Constitution. Objective Resolution The Objective Resolution was moved on December 13, 1946 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, which provided the philosophy and guiding principles for framing the Constitution and later took the form of Preamble of the Constitution of India. This Resolution was unanimously adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 January 1947. The Resolution stated that the Constituent Assembly would firstly proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republic which includes all the territories, retaining as autonomous units and possess residuary powers; all the people of India shall be guaranteed justice, equality of status, freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and subject to law and public morality; adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward, depressed classes; the integrity of the territories of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air and thus India would contribute to the promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind. 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 its draft. In all it sat only for 141 days.