Constitution Of India
The Constitution of India is the Supreme law of India .
The idea to have Constituent Assembly was first given in 1934 by M.N. Roy ( A pioneer of Communist Movement in India ).
In 1936, the Indian National Congress (INC) , for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India ( in Lucknow session ).
The Present constitution was framed by the Constituent Assembly of India setup under Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16, 1946 .
The Original Constituent Assembly consisted of 389 members, of which 292 were elected by the elected members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies while 93 members were nominated by the princely States.
The seats in each province were distributed among the three main communities – Muslim, Sikh (only in Punjab) and General in proportion to their respective populations.
The representatives of Princely States were nominated by Princely States themselves.
Note:- The Constituent Assembly was a partly elected and partly nominated body. The members were indirectly Elected by the members of the Provincial Assemblies.
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Functioning of the Constituent Assembly
The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly took place on Dec 9, 1946 with Dr. Sachidanand Sinha (the oldest member ,following the french practice) as it’s interim president.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad and H.C. Mukherji were elected as it’s president and vice president respectively on Dec 11, 1946 .
B.N Rao was appointed the constitutional advisor of the Assembly .
On Dec 13, 1946 , Jawaharlal Nehru moved the historic ‘objective resolution ‘ in the Assembly .
Other Functions Performed
In addition to the making of the Constitution and enacting of ordinary laws, the Constituent assembly also performed the following functions:
1. It ratified the Indian’s membership of the Commonwealth in May 1947
2. It adopted the National Flag on July 22, 1947 .
3. It adopted the National Anthem on January 24 , 1950 .
4. It adopted the National song on January 24 , 1950
5. It elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India on January 24 , 1950.