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THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
395 Articles, organised into 25 Parts and 12 Schedules, make up the Constitution of India

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The Constitution of India 1950 was preceded by British authored framework legislation to govern India, and proto-constitutional drafts by several Indian individuals and groups. These Historical Constitutions are archived here.

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The Constitution of India 1950 was drafted by a Constituent Assembly. 167 days of plenary assembly debates from 9 December 1946 to 24 January 1950 are archived here.

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A 389-member body responsible for drafting India’s Constitution.

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258472

(a) The Union Legislature shall consist of the Head of the state and two chambers – the Union Assembly and the Council of state.

(b) The strength of the Union Assembly shall be so fixed that there shall be on the average one member for every million of the population.

(c) Ten per cent of the total strength shall be reserved for the representation of the following special interests:-Landholders, Commerce and Industry, Labour, Women.

(d) The remaining seats shall be distributed among the following communities:-(1) Hindus, other than Scheduled Castes.(2) Muslims,(3) Scheduled Castes.(4) Sikhs.(5) Indian Christians.(6) Anglo-Indians.(7) other communities.

(e)-(i) In case the Muslim community on their part agree to the substitution throughout of joint electorates with reservation of seats for separate communal electorates and in that case only this Committee would recommend that, in the interests of promoting national unity, the Hindu Community should agree that in the strength of the Central Assembly excluding the seats allotted to special interests, such as commerce and industry, landholders, labour, etc., Muslim representation from British India shall be on a par with the representation given to the Hindus (other than Scheduled Castes) in spite of the great disparity in their respective population strengths. The Committee desire to emphasize their view that if this recommendation is not to be implemented in its entirety the Hindu community should be at liberty not merely not to agree to the claim for parity of representation but to ask for a revision of the Communal Award.

(ii) The Committee considers that the representation given to the Sikhs and Scheduled Castes in the Government of India Act is manifestly inadequate and unjust and should be substantially raised. The quantum of increased representation to be given to them should be left to the Constitution-making Body.

(f) For the Union Assembly there shall be adult franchise, for seats other than those reserved for special interests.

(g) For the special interests, there shall be special constituencies.

(h) There shall be direct election to the Union Assembly. As for election to the Council of state, the question shall be decided by the Constitution-making Body.

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