Chapter 5 - union and its territories

  Chapter 5 - Union and its territories  Article 1 to 4 under part 1 Deals with Union and its territory Article 1 describes India that is Bharat as a union of States rather than a Federation of states. Union of States has been preferred to Federation of states- Two reasons - Indian Federation is not the result of an agreement among the states. States have no right to secede from the Federation. Article 1 territory of India can be classified into three categories- Territory of the states union territories A territory that may be acquired by the government of India at any time. Names of state and union territories and their territorial extent mentioned in the first schedule. Presently 28 States and nine union territories Territory of India is a wider expression then Union of India because Territory of India also includes Union territories and territories that may be acquired by government of India at any future time. Being Sovereign India can acquire foreign ...

Making of the Constitution


Demand for a constituent assembly 

First time in 1934 by MN Roy (Pioneer of communist movement in India) 

In 1935 Indian National Congress officially demanded 

Finally accepted by British government in August offer of 1940. 

1942 sir Stafford Cripps Draft proposal of British government 

Rejected by the Muslim League 

Finally a cabinet Mission sent to India. 

Put forth a scheme for constituent assembly. 

Composition of the constituent assembly 
Constituted in November 1946 

Features of the scheme 

Total strength to be 389 

Of these 296 seats to British India and 93 seats to princely States. 

Out of 296, 292 are to be drawn from 11 Governor provinces and 4 from 4 Chief commissioners. 

Seat alloted in proportion to their respective population. 

A representative of each Community elected by member of that community in the provincial legislative assembly. Voting by method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. 

The representative of princely state to be nominated by heads. 

Constituent assembly was to be a partially re-elected and partially  nominated. 

Election to constituent assembly held in July to August 1946 

Indian National Congress won 208 seats 

Muslim League 73 seats small groups 15 seats 

Princely state did not participate 


Working of the constituent assembly. 

First meeting on December 9 1946 
Muslim League boycotted meeting 

Only 211 members 
Dr. Satchidananda Sinha oldest member elected as temporary president(French practice)

Dr. Rajendra Prasad later elected as president. 

Both HC mukherji and VT. Krishnamacharya elected as vice presidents. 

Objective resolution 

December 13, 1946 nehru moved historical objective resolution 

Resolution unanimously adopted by assembly on Jan 22, 1947 

Its modified version forms the preamble

Changes by Independence Act 

Princely States Representatives joined it 
After the acceptance of mountbatten plan of June 3 1947 

Members of Muslim League from Indian Dominion also entered 

Following 3 changes takes place-

1) Assembly made fully Sovereign body 

2) Assembly also became a legislative body. So two functions. 
One is making of the Constitution. 
Another is enacting of ordinary laws. 

Assembly as constituent Body chaired by dr. Rajendra Prasad 

Assembly as legislative body chaired by G v mavlankar

These two function continue till November 26 1949 

3) Muslim League member withdrew  from constituent assembly for India. 

Total strength Came down to 299.
British Province 229 princely States 70 

Other functions performed 

Ratified India's membership of Commonwealth in May 1949 

Adopted national flag on July 22 1947 

Adopted national anthem on January 24 1950 

Adopted national song on January 24 1950 

Elected. Dr. Rajendra Prasad as first President of India on January 24 1950

Constituent assembly had 11 seasons over 2 years 11 months and 18 days. 

Visited 60 countries 

Draft Constitution considered for 114 days. 

Total expenditure 64 lakh 

On Jan 24 1955 final session 

Continued as provisional Parliament from Jan 26 1915 till first general election 1951 to 52.

Committees of the constituent assembly

Major committees 

Union Constitution committee- Jawaharlal nehru 
Union power committee- Jawaharlal nehru 
Provincial Constitution committee- Sardar Patel 
drafting committee- Dr. Br ambedkar 

Advisory committee on fundamental rights minorities and tribal and excluded areas- Sardar Patel 
This committee had following five sub committee- 

1) Fundamental rights subcommittee- JB. Kripalani 
2) Minorities subcommittee- HC Mukherjee 
3) North East Frontier tribal areas and Assam( excluded and partially excluded areas) subcommittee- gopinath bardoloi. 
4) Excluded and partially excluded areas Other than those in Assam subcommittee- A V Thakkar
5)Northwest Frontier tribal areas subcommittee 

Rules of procedure committee- Dr. Rajendra Prasad 

States committee- Jawahar Lal nehru 

steering committee- Dr. Rajendra Prasad 

Minor committee 

Finance and staff committee. Dr. Rajendra Prasad
 Credential committee- Alladi krishnaswamy iyer

House committee- p sitaramayya 

Order of business committee- Dr KM munshi

Ad hoc committee on the national flag- Dr. Rajendra Prasad 

Committee on the function of the constituent assembly GV mavalankar

Ad hoc committee on the Supreme Court- S Varadachari(Not an constituent assembly member)

Committee on Chief commissioner provinces- BP sitaramayya 

Expert committee on the financial provisions of the Union Constitution- Nalini ranjan sarkar( Not an assembly member) 

Linguistic provinces commission- SK Dhar (not an assembly member)

Special committee to examine the draft Constitution- Jawaharlal nehru

Press Gallery committee- Usha nath sen. 

Ad hoc committee on citizenship- S varadachari(not an assembly member) 

Drafting committee 
Set up on August 29 1947. 

Task of preparing our draft of new constitution Seven members 

Dr. BR ambedkar (chairman) 
N gopalaswamy Ayyangar 
Alladi krishnaswamy ayyar
Dr KM Munshi
Syef Mohammad saadullah 
N madhava (replaced BL mitter who resigned due to ill health) 
TT krishnamacharya (replaced DP. Khaitan who died in 1948) 

Prepared first draft In February 1948 

Eight months to discuss and propose amendments. 

Second draft published in October 1948 

Drafting committee took less than six months to prepare its draft only sat for 141 days. 

Enactment of the Constitution 

Dr. BR ambedkar introduced final draft in assembly on November 4 1948 (first reading )
General discussion on it for five days till November 9 1948 

Second reading Clause by Clause, November 15 1948 to October 17 1949 

7653 amendments were proposed and 2473 were actually discussed in the assembly. 

Third reading November 14 1949 

B R ambedkar moved a motion 
Declared as passed on November 26 1949 received signatures of members and the president out of total 299 Only 284 were actually present. 
And signed the Constitution 

The Constitution as adopted on November 26 1949 contained a preamble 395 articles and 8 schedules. 

Preamble enacted after entire Constitution was enacted 

BR ambedkar father of the Indian constitution 

Enforcement of the Constitution 

Some provisions Covered in Article 5 6 7 8 9 6324 366 367 379 383 8 391 392 and 393 came into force on November 26 1949 itself 

Remaining Provisions came into force on January 26 1950 Date of its commencement and celebrated as Republic Day. 

Jan 26 specifically chosen Of its historical importance In 1930 Purna swaraj day was celebrated. 

By a resolution of Lahore season of the Indian National Congress 

The abolition of privy council jurisdiction act 1949 was however continued 

Experts Committee of the Congress 

During election or to constituent assembly. 

Indian National Congress appointed an expert committee for purpose of preparing materials for the constituent assembly. 

Consisted of- 
Jawaharlal nehru (Chairman) 
M Asif Ali 
K M Munshi
N gopalaswamy ayyanger 
KT shah
Dr. Gadgil
Humayun kabiryK santhanam
Later, Krishna kriplani co-opted as member. 

2 sitting- 
first at New Delhi From July 20 to 22 1946 

And second at Bombay from August 15 to 17 1956. 

Criticism of the constituent assembly 

Not a representative body. 
Not a sovereign body.
Time-consuming 
Dominated by Congress 
Lawyer politician domination 
Dominated by Hindus 

Important facts 

Elephant adopted as symbol of the constituent assembly 
Sir B N rao appointed as constitutional advisor. 
HVR Iyenger was the secretary to the constituent assembly. 
SN Mukherjee chief draftsman of the Constitution
Prem bihari Narayan raizada- Calligrapher of Indian constitution 
(Original Constitution and written by him in flowing italic Style)
Beautified and decorated by artists from Santiniketan including nandalal bose and Beohar Rammanohar sinha. 

Original Preamble illuminated and beautified by Beohar RamManohar Sinha calligraphed by Prem bihari Narayan raizada. 

Calligraphy of Hindi version by was done by vasant krishan vaidya
And decorated by nandalal Bose

Hindi text of the Constitution 

58th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1987 

Inserted a new article 394-A in last part XII

Contains following provision 
President shall cause to be published under his authority translation in Hindi language modification where necessary 
To bring it in Conformity with language style and terminology. 

All Amendments of Constitution made before such publication should be incorporated in it. 

Translation in Hindi of every Amendment of the Constitution made in English 

Translation of the Constitution and its every Amendment published shall be construed to have the same meaning as original text in English. 

If any difficulty president shall cause the Hindi text to be revised suitably. 

Translation of Constitution and its every Amendment published shall be deemed to be for all purposes its authoritative texts in Hindi.

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