DEMAND FOR A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

 In 1934: The idea of a Constituent Assembly put forward by M.N. Roy

 In 1935: INC officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the
Constitution of India.
 In 1938: Nehru, on behalf of INC declared ‘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 British in what is known as
the ‘August Offer’ of 1940.
 In 1942: Sir Stafford Cripps, came with a draft proposal of the British
Government on the framing of an independent Constitution. It was
rejected by the Muslim League, which wanted India to be divided into
two autonomous states with two separate Constituent Assemblies.
 Finally, 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
 Constituted under cabinet mission plan 1946
 Members elected indirectly by provincial legislative assembly under
government of India act 1935
 Number of members
o originally: 389
 292 British provision
 93 princely state
 4 chief commissioner province
o number of members after partition: 299
 229 British province
 70 princely state
 meetings
o First meeting: 9 December 1946
o Last meeting: 24 January 1950
o Number of total sittings and time:
 11 sessions, 2 years, 11 months, 18 days.
Oligarchy by Granville Austin
 Jawaharlal Nehru, Azad, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel

Committees in constituent assembly

 President:
o Provisional: Sachidanand Sinha
o Permanent: Rajendra Prasad
  Whenever the assembly meet as a constitution body it was chaired by Dr.
Rajendra Prasad, and when it may as the legislative body it was chaired by
G.V. Mavlankar
 Vice President
o H.C. Mukherjee
o V.T. Krishna Ramachari

 Nehru (Chairman):
o Union Powers Committee
o Union Constitution Committee
o States Committee (For Negotiating with States)
 Patel:
o Provincial Constitution Committee
o Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal
and Excluded Areas.
 Dr. Rajendra Prasad
o Steering Committee
o Rules of Procedure Committee
 B.R. Ambedkar (chairman): Drafting committee (Established on 29th
August 1947) (7 members)
 Other members
 G Ayangar
 Krishnaswami Ayyar
 K.M. Musnhi
 Saadulla
 Madhav rao ( replaced BL Mittal)
 TT krishnamachari (replaced DP Khaitan)

Famous quotes on constituent assembly and constitution.

 Ambedkar
o Article 356 is like safety valve and would remain a dead letter
o Article 32 is the heart and soul of the constitution
o If the things go wrong in the new constitution the reason will not
be that we had a bad constitution, what we will have to say it
that man was vile.
o Constitutional morality should be held higher than public
morality.
 Granville Austin
o Indian constitution as seniors web.
 Paul brass
o Indian constitution was born more in fear and trepidation than in
hope and inspiration
 Patel
 o But in long run it would be in interest of all to forget that there is
anything like majority and minority in the country and in India
there is only one community.
 Ivar Jennings
o DPSP are like "Pious Aspirations"

Trivia on constituent assembly

 Original constitution had 395 articles, 8 schedules and 22 parts. At
present there are 448 articles and 12 schedule, 25 parts.
 First meeting attended by 211 members
 20th February 1947 (Clement Atlee): announced on radio, that till
June 1948 England will leave India.
 Mountbatten plan: 3rd June 1947
 Government of India act 1935 acted as interim constitution.
 Constituent assembly as interim parliament.
 Elephant adopted as the symbol (seal) of the Constituent Assembly.
 Sir B.N. Rau was the constitutional advisor (Legal advisor) to the
Constituent Assembly.
 H.V.R. Iyengar was the Secretary to the Constituent Assembly.
 S.N. Mukerjee was the chief draftsman of the constitution in the
Constituent Assembly.
 Original Constitution
o Beautified and decorated by artists from Shantiniketan
 Nand Lal Bose decorated and illuminated (Hindi
version of the original constitution) 58th constitutional
ammendment 1987. Which added article 394-A.
calligraphed by Vasant Krishan Vaidya and elegantly
by Nand Lal Bose.
 Beohar Rammanohar Sinha illuminated, beautified
and ornamented (the original Preamble) calligraphed
by Prem Behari Narain Raizada.
 Prem Behari Narain Raizada calligrapher (the Indian
Constitution). handwritten by him in a flowing italic
style.

Latin words PREAMBLUS (Introduction)

Preamble of the Constitution

 The American Constitution was the first to begin with a Preamble.
 The term ‘Preamble’ refers to the introduction or preface to the
Constitution.
 It contains the summary or essence of the Constitution.
  N.A. Palkhivala, (eminent jurist and constitutional expert) ‘identity
card of the Constitution.’
 Based on the ‘Objectives Resolution’, (moved on 13th December
1946) drafted and moved by Pandit Nehru, and adopted by the
Constituent Assembly (on 22nd January 1949).(preamble adopted).
 Amended once by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act (1976),
which added three new words–Socialist, Secular and Integrity.
INGREDIENTS OF THE PREAMBLE
1. Source of authority of the Constitution: from the people of India.
2. Nature of Indian State: sovereign, socialist, secular democratic and
republican polity.
3. Objectives of the Constitution: justice, liberty, equality and
fraternity.
4. Date of adoption of the Constitution: November 26, 1949.

KEY WORDS IN THE PREAMBLE

 Sovereign
India is neither a dependency nor a dominion of any other nation.
In 1949, India declared the continuation of her full membership of the
Commonwealth of Nations and accepted the British Crown as the head of the
Commonwealth, this extraconstitutional declaration does not affect India’s
sovereignty in any manner.

India can either acquire a foreign territory or cede a part of its territory in
favour of a foreign state.

 Socialist
Before the term was added by the 42nd Amendment, the Constitution had a
socialist content in the form of certain Directive Principles of State Policy.
Congress party itself adopted a resolution to establish a ‘socialistic pattern of
society’ in its Avadi session as early as in 1955.

The Indian brand of socialism is a ‘democratic socialism’ which holds faith in

a ‘mixed economy’ where both public and private sectors co-exist side by
side.

Indian socialism is a blend of Marxism and Gandhism, leaning heavily

towards the Gandhian socialism’.

The new Economic Policy (1991) of liberalisation, privatisation

and globalisation has, however, diluted the socialist credentials of the Indian
State.
  Secular
Added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976.
Supreme Court in 1974, although the words ‘secular' is not in the
constitution (therefore word secular not mentioned in the constitutions body
even once and preamble is not the body of the constitution.), there can be
no doubt that constitution makers wanted such a state and hence article 25
to 28 were added in the constitution.

The Indian Constitution embodies the positive concept of secularism ie, all
religions in our country (irrespective of their strength) have the same status
and support from the state.

 Democratic
Based on the doctrine of popular sovereignty
Is of two types–direct and indirect.

Direct democracy: There are four devices of direct democracy, namely,

Referendum, Initiative, Recall and Plebiscite

Indirect democracy: The Indian Constitution provides for representative

parliamentary democracy.

Term ‘democratic’ is used in the Preamble in the broader

sense embracing not only political democracy but also social and economic
democracy.

Dimension was stressed by Dr. Ambedkar in his concluding speech in the

Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, in the following way: “Political
democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy (a
way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity).

Supreme Court observed in 1997 that:

“The Constitution envisions to establish an egalitarian social order rendering

to every citizen social, economic and political justice in a social and
economic democracy of the Bharat Republic”.

 Republic
A democratic polity can be classified into two categories– monarchy and
republic. In a republic, the head of the state is always elected directly or
indirectly for a fixed period, e.g., USA.
The term ‘republic’ in our Preamble indicates that India has an elected head
called the president. He is elected indirectly for a fixed period of five years.
A republic also means two more things:

one, vesting of political sovereignty in the people and not in a single

individual like a king.

second, the absence of any privileged class and hence all public offices being
opened to every citizen without any discrimination.

 Justice
The term ‘justice’ in the Preamble embraces three distinct forms– social,
economic and political, secured through various provisions of Fundamental
Rights and Directive Principles.
The ideal of justice–social, economic and political–has been taken from the
Russian Revolution (1917).

 Liberty
Preamble secures to all citizens of India liberty of thought, expression, belief,
faith and worship, through their Fundamental Rights, enforceable in court of
law, in case of violation.
Liberty conceived by the Preamble or Fundamental Rights is not absolute but
qualified.

The ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity in our Preamble have been
taken from the French Revolution (1789–1799).

Liberty literally means Absence of restraints

In: thought, expression, belief, faith and worship

o Ensured in fundament rights

 Article 19: democratic freedom
 Article 25 to 28: Right to freedom of religion
o 2 kinds
 Negative Liberty: State not too do something.
 Positive Liberty: government to increase the capability of
people.

 Equality
Provision embraces three dimensions of equality
o civic:
 Equality before the law (Article 14).
 Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race,
caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15).
 Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment
(Article 16).
  Abolition of untouchability (Article 17).
 Abolition of titles (Article 18).
o political:
 No person is to be declared ineligible for inclusion in
electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex
(Article 325).
 Elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies to be
on the basis of adult suffrag (Article 326).
o economic:
 The Directive Principles of State Policy (Article 39) secures
to men and women equal right to an adequate means of
livelihood and equal pay for equal work.
 Fraternity:
Fraternity means a sense of brotherhood.
Systems of single citizenship promotes fraternity.

The Fundamental Duties (Article 51-A) say that it shall be the duty of
every citizen of India to promote harmony and the spirit of common
brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic,
regional or sectional diversities.

The Preamble declares that fraternity has to assure two things–

o the dignity of the individual

o the unity and integrity of the nation.
The word ‘integrity’ has been added to the preamble by the 42nd
Constitutional Amendment (1976).
According to K.M. Munshi, a member of the Drafting Committee of the
Constituent Assembly, the phrase ‘dignity of the individual’ signifies that the
Constitution not only ensures material betterment and maintain a democratic
set-up, but that it also recognises that the personality of every individual is
sacred.

This is highlighted through some of the provisions of the FR and DPSP, which
ensure the dignity of individuals.

The Fundamental Duties (Article 51-A) also protect the dignity of women by
stating that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to renounce practices
derogatory to the dignity of women, and also makes it the duty of every
citizen of India to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of
India.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PREAMBLE

Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer:

‘The Preamble to our Constitution expresses what we had thought or dreamt

so long’.

K.M. Munshi:

Preamble is the ‘horoscope of our sovereign democratic republic’.

Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava:

Preamble is the most precious part of the Constitution. It is the soul, key and
a jewel set in the Constitution. It is a proper yardstick with which one can
measure the worth of the Constitution’.

Sir Ernest Barker:

‘key-note’ to the Constitution.

He was so moved by the text of the preamble that he quoted it at the

opening of his popular book, Principles of Social and Political Theory (1951).

M. Hidayatullah, (a former Chief Justice of India)

more than a declaration, It contains a solemn resolve, which nothing but a

revolution can alter. Soul of the constitution.

Is preamble part of constitution and can it be

amended
 Berubai union and exchange of enclaves: Article 368 can ammend
any part of the constitution, but PREAMBLE is not a part of constitution
therefore it can't be amended.
In this case the court missed the point that PREAMBLE was allotted by the
same procedure as the constitution was
This was corrected in:

 Keshvanand bharati case vs State of Kerala: like any other part of

constitution preamble is also a part of constitution.
Therefore it can be amended by the constitution.
Note:
42nd amendment to the constitution didn't harm the basic structure of the
constitution.

Important facts form MCQ

 Article 394 of the constitution States that: article 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 60,
324, 367, 379 and 394 came into force since the adoption of the
constitution, and rest of the provisions on 26th January 1950.
o Constitution adopted: 26th November 1949
o Constitution came into effect: 26 January 1950
 Designing on the PREAMBLE by: Rammanohar Sinha
 Preamble Not enforceable by law (Preamble an integral part of
constitution but not enforceable by law). In 1995 case union
government of India vs LIC of India)
 After getting independence in 1947 India was dominion of British
Government, India became Sovereign when it adopted the
constitution in 1949.