Constituent Assembly of India: Composition, Committees and Making of the Constitution

Constituent Assembly of India: Meaning and Role

The Body That Framed and Adopted the Constitution

The Constituent Assembly's work ran for almost three years, and at its last sitting, on 24 January 1950, members signed the text that came into force two days later.

The Assembly matters because the authority of the Constitution rests on how it was made. Its members were chosen by the Provincial Legislative Assemblies rather than by universal suffrage, yet it debated the draft clause by clause in sessions open to the press and the public, and its recorded debates are still used to read the text.

The Constituent Assembly performed four roles between 1946 and 1950, which together explain why its record is studied so closely:

• Constitution-making body: It drafted, debated and adopted the Constitution.
• Legislature: After independence it also made the ordinary laws of the Dominion.
• Self-rule in law: It replaced the Government of India Act, 1935, which the Congress had rejected in 1936 as an imposition on the people.
• Forum of consensus: Its committees drafted provisions that the whole Assembly then debated, seeking agreement across its members.

Why a Constitution Framed by Indians Mattered in 1946

Before independence, the principal framework of government was the Government of India Act, 1935, a statute of the British Parliament. A constitution adopted by an assembly of Indian representatives would draw its authority from the people rather than from London, which is why the national movement demanded such an assembly.

The Assembly also inherited a background consensus. Principles such as democracy, equality, liberty and sovereignty had been debated for decades during the freedom struggle, and the Objectives Resolution of 1946 gave them their clearest summary before drafting began.

Demand for a Constituent Assembly: From 1936 to the Cabinet Mission

Congress Demand of 1936 and the Call for Adult Franchise

The Indian National Congress raised the official demand for a Constituent Assembly at its Lucknow session of April 1936, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru. The same session rejected the Government of India Act, 1935, as an imposition on the people of India.

The demand was renewed as war approached. On 15 November 1939, C. Rajagopalachari again called for a Constituent Assembly based on adult franchise, a principle that the eventual Assembly wrote into the Constitution even though its own members were chosen indirectly.

August Offer of 1940 and the Cripps Proposals of 1942

The British first conceded the principle in the August Offer. On 8 August 1940, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow announced an expanded Executive Council and a War Advisory Council, and the offer included giving full weight to minority opinions and allowing Indians to draft their own constitution.

The Cripps Mission of late March 1942, led by Sir Stafford Cripps, went further. It offered full dominion status at the end of the war, with a constituent assembly to frame the constitution, but it also allowed provinces to opt out of a future Indian Constituent Assembly.

Both major parties rejected the proposals. The Congress signalled its opposition on 2 April 1942 because the opt-out clause opened the way to partition, while the Muslim League rejected them because they did not clearly accept the demand for Pakistan.

Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946: The Scheme Behind the Assembly

The Assembly was finally created under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946. Formed at the initiative of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, the mission consisted of three Cabinet ministers, Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander, and the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, took part in some of its discussions.

The plan of 16 May 1946 laid down the composition and structure of the Constituent Assembly. It also proposed a three-tier scheme for British India, with a Union at the top, provinces at the bottom and three groups of provinces, called A, B and C, in the middle.

The grouping scheme proved divisive. The Congress held that a sovereign constituent assembly would not be bound by the plan, Jinnah insisted it was binding once accepted, and the Muslim League withdrew its earlier approval of the plan on 29 July 1946.

Composition of the Constituent Assembly Under the Cabinet Mission Plan

Members of the Constituent Assembly: 389 Seats by Population

Seats were allotted to each province and to each princely state or group of states in proportion to population, at about one seat for every ten lakh people, a ratio of 1:10,00,000. The total membership was fixed at 389.

Indirect Election by Proportional Representation and Single Transferable Vote

Members from the provinces were not directly elected by the people. They were chosen by indirect election by the members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies that had been established under the Government of India Act, 1935.

The seats in each province were divided among three communities, Muslims, Sikhs and general, in proportion to their populations. The members of each community in the Provincial Legislative Assembly then elected their own representatives by proportional representation with single transferable vote, while the method for the princely states was left to consultation.

The Assembly was therefore representative but not directly elected. Communities were represented in proportion to population, yet no provincial member faced a popular vote for a seat in the Assembly itself.

The 1946 Elections: Congress Majority and the Muslim League Boycott

Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British Indian provinces were completed by August 1946. The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, about 69 per cent, the Muslim League won 73, and the remaining 15 went to smaller parties and independents.

The League then refused to cooperate, boycotted the Assembly and demanded a separate constituent assembly for Muslims. Later, 28 of its 73 members joined the Assembly, and after Partition the Congress held about 82 per cent of the seats.

Representation of Scheduled Castes, Women and Minorities

There was a serious attempt to make the Assembly representative despite indirect election. Members of all religions were represented under the scheme, and the Assembly had 28 members from the Scheduled Castes.

Women formed a smaller but distinct group. The Assembly had 17 women members by 1948, among them Hansa Mehta, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sucheta Kripalani and G. Durgabai, and two of them, Hansa Mehta and Amrit Kaur, sat on the 12-member Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee.

Minorities were also represented among the Assembly's officers. H. C. Mookerjee, a Christian from Bengal and a former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, was elected Vice-President and chaired the Minorities Sub-Committee.

First Sessions and Officers of the Constituent Assembly, 1946

First Sitting on 9 December 1946 and the Temporary Chairman

The Assembly held its first sitting in the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, now the Central Hall of Parliament House, on 9 December 1946 at 11 in the morning. It was attended by 207 members, while the Muslim League boycotted the meeting.

Acharya J. B. Kripalani invited Dr Sachchidananda Sinha to take the chair as temporary Chairman, describing him as the oldest member and the oldest parliamentarian in India. Sinha had served on the Imperial Legislative Council from 1910 to 1920, and he presided from 9 to 11 December 1946.

Sinha then had Frank Anthony nominated as Deputy Chairman, because on medical advice he could not work in the afternoons, and members began presenting their credentials and signing the register. The temporary office is also described as that of provisional President.

Election of Rajendra Prasad and the Assembly's Principal Officers

On 11 December 1946, the Assembly elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent President. H. C. Mookerjee became Vice-President, and V. T. Krishnamachari was elected a second Vice-President on 16 July 1948.

The Assembly's principal legal adviser was Sir B. N. Rau, its Constitutional Adviser, appointed in 1946. Rau travelled that year to the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom to consult judges and scholars, and he prepared the initial draft on which the Drafting Committee later worked.

Objectives Resolution: The Assembly's Statement of Aims

On 13 December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution, which defined the aims of the Assembly. The Assembly adopted it unanimously on 22 January 1947, and its principles later took shape in the Preamble.

The resolution declared India an independent, sovereign republic in which all power flowed from the people, and it promised justice, equality and fundamental freedoms, with adequate safeguards for minorities and for backward and tribal areas.

Independence and Partition: The Assembly Becomes Sovereign

The 3 June 1947 Plan and the Indian Independence Act

On 3 June 1947, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, announced a plan that accepted the partition of British India and set aside the Cabinet Mission Plan. Each successor state could make its own constitution, and a separate Constituent Assembly was set up for Pakistan.

The Indian Independence Act, 1947, received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and created the two dominions of India and Pakistan from 15 August 1947. Members elected from territories that went to Pakistan ceased to belong to the Assembly, whose strength fell to 299 members.

Reassembly on 14 August 1947 as a Sovereign Body

The Assembly reassembled on 14 August 1947 as the Constituent Assembly for divided India. It met as a sovereign body, successor to the British Parliament's authority in India.

Partition also settled the grouping dispute of 1946, because the 3 June plan set the Cabinet Mission Plan aside.

The Independence Act also let the Governor-General adapt the Government of India Act, 1935, until 31 March 1948, after which it was open to the Constituent Assembly to modify or adopt that Act. The Dominion was therefore governed under an adapted form of the old framework while the new one was drafted.

Dual Role: Constitution-Making Body and Legislature of the Dominion

From independence the Assembly carried two functions. It was given sovereign powers to legislate for the Dominion, because under the Independence Act the Central Legislative Assembly and the Council of State ceased to exist from 14 August 1947, and it continued to frame the Constitution alongside ordinary law-making.

The dual role continued after the Constitution took effect. On 26 January 1950 the Assembly became the Provisional Parliament, whose members served until the first Parliament elected under the Constitution met in 1952.

Committees of the Constituent Assembly and Their Chairpersons

22 Committees of the Constituent Assembly: 8 Major Committees and Chairs

The Assembly divided its work among committees. There were 22 committees, of which eight were major committees, and these were usually chaired by Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel or B. R. Ambedkar.

Each committee usually drafted particular provisions, which the full Assembly then debated. The leaders who chaired them often disagreed, yet they worked together, and the Assembly generally tried to reach a consensus so that agreed provisions would not harm any particular interest.

Nehru chaired three of the eight, including the Union Constitution Committee and the Union Powers Committee, while Ambedkar chaired only the Drafting Committee among the major bodies.

Sub-Committees on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal Areas

The Advisory Committee chaired by Patel, which covered rights, minorities and tribal and excluded areas, had four sub-committees:

• Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee: J. B. Kripalani.
• Minorities Sub-Committee: H. C. Mookerjee.
• North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee: Gopinath Bordoloi.
• Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee: Thakkar Bapa.

The Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee first met on 27 February 1947 with 12 members. Its report went to the Advisory Committee on 16 April 1947, and the Minorities Sub-Committee examined it over the following days before the Advisory Committee debated it.

Minor Committees: Procedure, Flag, Language and the House

Several minor committees dealt with the Assembly's own working. Prasad also chaired the Ad hoc Committee on the National Flag, and the national flag was adopted on 22 July 1947. The other minor committees were chaired as follows:

• Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly: G. V. Mavalankar.
• House Committee: B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
• Order of Business Committee: K. M. Munshi.
• Language Committee: Moturi Satyanarayana.

The Drafting Committee and the Draft Constitution

Drafting Committee of 29 August 1947: Chairman and Members

The Assembly set up the Drafting Committee on 29 August 1947, with Dr B. R. Ambedkar as Chairman, to prepare a Draft Constitution. The committee held its first meeting on 30 August 1947 and, by Ambedkar's account, sat for 141 days on the draft. Its role differed from that of the Assembly itself, since the Drafting Committee prepared the text, while the whole Assembly debated, amended and adopted it.

Its mandate was to scrutinise the draft prepared by the Constitutional Adviser, give effect to decisions already taken in the Assembly and submit the text of a Draft Constitution. The committee had seven members including the Chairman:

• B. R. Ambedkar (Chairman).
• K. M. Munshi.
• Muhammed Sadulla.
• Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar.
• N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar.
• N. Madhava Rao, who replaced B. L. Mitter after he resigned owing to ill health.
• T. T. Krishnamachari, who replaced D. P. Khaitan after his death in 1948.

From the Adviser's Draft to 395 Articles: The Drafting Process

The Assembly's work passed through five stages:

1. Committee reports on the main issues.
2. An initial draft by B. N. Rau, the Constitutional Adviser.
3. A detailed draft by the Drafting Committee, published for public discussion.
4. Debate in the Assembly, with amendments.
5. Final adoption.

Ambedkar's own figures show how the text grew.

The debate on the draft was intense. About 7,635 amendments were tabled and 2,473 were actually moved in the House, and of the Assembly's 11 sessions covering 165 days, 114 days were spent considering the Draft Constitution.

Speaking in the Assembly on 4 November 1948, Ambedkar asked whether there could be anything new in a constitution framed so late in the history of the world. The only new things, he answered, could be the variations made to remove the faults and to "accommodate it to the needs of the country".

Ambedkar's Role and the Credit He Shared With B. N. Rau

Ambedkar carried much of the drafting burden. T. T. Krishnamachari told the Assembly that of the seven members nominated, one had resigned and been replaced, one had died, one was in America and others were busy or unwell, so the burden fell on Dr Ambedkar.

Ambedkar himself shared the credit. On 25 November 1949 he said that the credit given to him did not really belong to him, attributing part of it to Sir B. N. Rau, who had prepared a rough draft, and part to the members of the Drafting Committee.

The President of the Assembly paid his own tribute on 26 November 1949. Rajendra Prasad said the Assembly could never have made a better decision than when it put Ambedkar on the Drafting Committee and made him its Chairman, adding that the other members deserved the thanks of the country.

Adoption, Signing and Commencement of the Constitution

Adoption on 26 November 1949 and Provisions in Force at Once

The Assembly adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949, the date the Preamble records. Not every provision waited for the Republic, since under Article 394 a small group of provisions came into force at once.

Those provisions were Article 394 itself and Articles 5 to 9, 60, 324, 366 and 367, 379 and 380, 388, and 391 to 393. They include the citizenship provisions of Articles 5 to 9, the Election Commission provision of Article 324 and the definitions in Article 366.

Final Sitting on 24 January 1950: Signatures of 284 Members

The Assembly met for the last time on 24 January 1950. That day, 284 members who were present appended their signatures to the Constitution as finally passed, which contained 395 articles and 8 Schedules.

Universal suffrage was the one provision that passed with virtually no debate, because members felt no need to discuss it; every other matter, from the powers of the judiciary to the protection of property, was argued at length.

Commencement on 26 January 1950 and the Repeal of the 1935 Act

The rest of the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950, which Article 394 calls "the commencement of this Constitution" and which is celebrated as Republic Day. On the same day, Article 395 repealed the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and the Government of India Act, 1935, with the enactments amending the latter.

Article 395 made one exception, as it did not repeal the Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act, 1949. By then the work had taken almost three years; Ambedkar reckoned the period on 25 November 1949 at "two years, eleven months and seventeen days" since the first sitting.

Government of India Act, 1935: Groundwork for the Constitution

Features of the 1935 Act the Framers Inherited

The Government of India Act, 1935, received Royal Assent on 2 August 1935 and was the longest Act of the British Parliament until 1999. Its provincial part came into force on 1 April 1937, and provincial autonomy began after the elections of that year.

The Act created several institutions and arrangements that the Constituent Assembly would later adapt:

• Federation: An All India Federation of British Indian provinces and princely states as units, which never came into operation because the rulers of the states opposed it.
• Division of powers: Three lists, federal, provincial and concurrent, dividing legislative power between the centre and the units.
• Provincial autonomy: A large measure of autonomy for the provinces, ending the dyarchy of the 1919 Act, though governors kept important reserve powers.
• Institutions: The Federal Court, the Reserve Bank of India, and public service commissions at the federal and provincial levels.
• Franchise: Direct elections to provincial legislatures, raising the electorate from five million to 35 million.

The Act kept real power at the centre in British hands. It provided for dyarchy at the centre, under which the British government, through the Governor-General, continued to control defence, foreign affairs, financial obligations and the British Indian Army, so these subjects never passed to the federal legislature.

How the 1935 Act Helped the Assembly Finish in About Three Years

The Assembly drafted so long a Constitution in under three years partly because of the institutional inheritance of the 1935 Act, which the framers adapted rather than rebuilt, through five channels:

• Electoral base: The provincial members were elected by the Provincial Legislative Assemblies established under the 1935 Act, so the Assembly could be formed without new electoral machinery.
• Federal design: The Act's federal, provincial and concurrent lists gave the framers a model for dividing power, which reappears as the Union, State and Concurrent Lists of the Seventh Schedule.
• Working experience: Provincial autonomy operated from 1937, and Congress provincial governments held office under the Act until they resigned en masse after war broke out in 1939, giving party leaders experience of responsible government.
• Expert drafting: B. N. Rau had worked on constitutional and federal questions in the Reforms Office, and his initial draft of 243 articles gave the Drafting Committee a text to start from.
• Continuity of law: The adapted 1935 Act governed the Dominion while the Assembly deliberated, so drafting did not have to wait on day-to-day administration.

Among its sources, the Constitution drew most on the 1935 Act, alongside earlier Acts from 1858 onwards. Method also saved time, because committees reported first and the Drafting Committee worked from an adviser's text rather than a blank page.

What the Constitution Kept From the 1935 Act and Where It Broke

The debt to 1935 should not be overstated. The Constitution kept and adapted some of the Act's institutions, but it rejected the Act's core political choices, each by a specific provision of its own.

Borrowing was not slavish imitation. Each provision had to be defended as suited to Indian problems and aspirations, and the framers presented their variations as corrections of faults found elsewhere and adjustments to the needs of the country.

Criticism of the Constituent Assembly and the Replies

Criticisms: Indirect Election, Congress Dominance and Delay

The Assembly has faced four main criticisms, some raised by its own members during the debates and others by later writers:

• Not a popular body: Its members were elected by the provincial assemblies rather than by universal adult suffrage, and Rajeev Dhavan has argued that the people had little say in the Constitution.
• One-party dominance: The Congress held about 82 per cent of the seats after Partition, and the Muslim League had boycotted the Assembly from its first sitting.
• Delay and cost: Some charged that it worked leisurely and wasted public money, likening it to Nero fiddling while Rome was burning.
• Quality of drafting: Naziruddin Ahmed condemned the Drafting Committee's work as below par.

These objections question the legitimacy of the text itself. Members answered the charges of delay and poor drafting in the debates, and the Assembly's composition answers the charge that it was not representative.

Replies: Representative Composition and Public Reason

The reply on representation is that the Assembly, though indirectly elected, was deliberately made representative, since all religions were represented, 28 members came from the Scheduled Castes, and the Congress itself accommodated almost all shades of opinion. Members argued through public reason, giving principled reasons rather than advancing narrow interests.

On delay, Ambedkar compared other assemblies. The American Convention took four months and the South African about a year, while Canada's took two years and five months and Australia's nine years. All those constitutions were far shorter, and they were passed without amendments; this Assembly had to deal with 2,473 amendments. The charge of dilatoriness, he concluded, was "quite unfounded".

On quality, Ambedkar turned Naziruddin Ahmed's jibe into a defence. Ahmed had called the body a "Drifting Committee"; Ambedkar replied that there is a difference between "drift without mastery" and "drift with mastery", and that by withdrawing amendments it thought faulty and putting better ones in their place, the Committee had been searching for something better rather than drifting.

Ambedkar's Warnings to the Assembly on 25 November 1949

Ambedkar ended with warnings that are still quoted. He cautioned against hero-worship in politics, calling it a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship, and urged that political democracy be made a social democracy as well.

He also foresaw a life of contradictions from 26 January 1950, with equality in politics, with "one man one vote and one vote one value", alongside inequality in social and economic life, which he warned would put political democracy in peril if it continued for long.

Constitution Day and the Assembly's Legacy Today

Constitution Day on 26 November: The 2015 Decision

In November 2015 the Government decided to observe 26 November as Constitution Day, the day the Assembly adopted the Constitution in 1949. The day was made part of the year-long celebrations of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, and schools were asked to read out the Preamble in their assemblies.

The day is also known as National Law Day. It marks the adoption of the Constitution, not the setting up of the Drafting Committee, which was appointed on 29 August 1947.

Legacy of the Assembly: Text, Institutions and Interpretation

The Assembly's work has left three lasting results:

• An enduring text: The Constitution has survived and become a living reality where many others perished, and it became an exemplar for other constitutions, most notably South Africa's.
• Continuity of institutions: G. V. Mavalankar, who had chaired the Assembly's Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly, became the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
• A record for interpretation: In 2024 the Supreme Court noted that the Assembly had not agreed to include the words "socialist" and "secular" in the Preamble, before holding that the Constitution is a living document.

The last outcome links the Assembly to current debates. The choices made between 1946 and 1949, and the reasons recorded for them, are still weighed when the meaning of the Constitution is contested, as the 2024 ruling on the Preamble showed.

Sources

• Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice: The Constitution of India
• Lok Sabha Secretariat: Constituent Assembly Debates, Official Report, Volume I (9 December 1946)
• Lok Sabha Secretariat: Constituent Assembly Debates, Official Report, Volume XI (25 November 1949)
• NCERT: Indian Constitution at Work, Class 11, Chapter 1, Constitution: Why and How?
• Press Information Bureau: 26th November to be observed as Constitution Day (23 November 2015)
• Supreme Court of India: Dr Balram Singh v Union of India, order of 25 November 2024 (2024 INSC 893)
• Wikipedia: Constituent Assembly of India
• Wikipedia: Constitution of India
• Wikipedia: Government of India Act 1935
• Wikipedia: Indian Independence Act 1947
• Wikipedia: 1946 Cabinet Mission to India
• Wikipedia: Cripps Mission
• Wikipedia: Sachchidananda Sinha
• Wikipedia: B. N. Rau