Constituent Assembly
The Constitution making process was organised around the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. The members of the Constituent Assembly were elected on a limited franchise. The Cabinet Mission Plan, which set up the Constituent Assembly of India, discarded ...
Committees
The Constituent Assembly at various points during the constitution making process, appointed a number of Committees on different aspects of the Constitution to conduct preliminary research and deliberations within smaller groups. The work of these Committees took the form of reports which were discussed in the Constituent Assembly. The Constitutional Adviser, B.N Rau compiled reports of various committees to prepare a Draft Constitution which he submitted to the Drafting Committee. Decision making in the committees was on the basis of a majority vote and members could record their dissents to decisions taken if they wished. The follo...
Drafting Commitee
On 29th August 1947, the Constituent Assembly through a resolution appointed a Drafting Committee to “..scrutinise the draft of the text of the Constitution of India prepared by Constitutional Adviser, giving effect to the decisions already taken in the Asse...
Congress Assembly Party
The Congress Assembly Party was an unofficial forum where provisions of the Constitution and related issues were discussed and debated before they came up in the Constituent Assembly. All members elected on a Congress party ticket were free to attend and contri...
First Session of the Constituent Assembly
13th Dec 1946 - 22nd Jan 1947
The Constituent Assembly formally began its task of framing the Constitution of India on the 13th of December, 1946 with Jawaharlal Nehru moving the Objectives Resolution. The purpose of the resolution was to “… proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republ...
Committee Stages and Second Session of Cons...
27th Feb 1947 - 30th Aug 1947
After the first session of the Constituent Assembly, a number of committees were formed to look into and report on various aspects of the Constitution. The Committees that were appointed were - Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights and Minority Rights (which...
Draft Constitution by the Constitutional Ad...
1st Oct 1947 - 31st Oct 1947
B.N Rau, the Constitutional Advisor to the Assembly, on the basis of the reports of the various subcommittees and discussions in the Constituent Assembly mentioned in the previous stage, prepared a Draft Constitution. The Draft Constitution was ready by October...
First Draft Constitution
The Drafting Committee began to scrutinize the Draft Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Advisor, along with other notes, reports and memoranda on October 27th, 1947. It proceeded to make changes and it finally submitted its Draft Constitution to the Pr...
Public Circulation of the Draft Constitution
The Draft Constitution once submitted to the President of the Constituent Assembly was published and circulated among the public. Many comments, critiques, and suggestions were received, which were then scrutinized by a Special Committee of members of the Union Constitution Committee, Provincial Constitution Committee and the Union Powers Committee and the Drafting Committee itself. The Drafting Committee, taking into account comments, critiques and suggestions arising from different quarters, along with its own inputs, sat on the 23rd, 24th, 27th of March and 18th October of 1948 for discussions. On the 26th of October 1948, the Draftin...
Debates on the Draft Constitution
The Draft Constitution was presented to the Constituent Assembly on November 4th,1948 by the Chairman of the Drafting Committee, B.R. Ambedkar. The Constituent Assembly proceeded to take up, clause by clause, every part of the Draft Constitution for debate. Me...
Revision of the Draft Constitution
After the debates around the Draft Constitution concluded, the Drafting Committee then went on to revise the Draft Constitution according to decisions taken in the Constituent Assembly along with other tasks such as renumbering of articles, minor changes in language, dropping and insertion of clauses and articles. The revised Draft Constitution was submitted to the President of the Constituent Assembly on the 3rd of Nov 1949 , and then introduced in the Assembly on the 14th of November 1949.
Second Reading of Draft Constitution
The Assembly undertook a second reading of the Draft Constitution (revised). While many amendments were moved, most of them were negated.
Third Reading of Drafting Constitution
The third reading of the Draft Constitution began with Ambedkar moving a motion “that the Constitution as settled by the assembly be passed”. In this phase, there were few substantive debates. Most of the speeches involved general comments on the Constitution as whole. While some members expressed their satisfaction, others expressed concerns.
Enactment and Adoption of the Constitution of India
On the 26th of November, 1949, the third reading came to an end with the assembly voting for the motion that Ambedkar had proposed of adopting the Constitution. The Constitution was then finally signed by members of the Constituent Assembly on 24th January 1950...