Historical Background:
- Poorna Swaraj Resolution 1920: complete freedom from the British
- Nehru Report 1928: Fundamental rights, federal set-up
- M N Roy : idea of Constituent Assembly 1934
- Government of India Act 1935: many provisions were taken from this Act
- Cripps Mission, Cabinet mission : advocated the idea of constituent assembly
Formed by Constituent assembly: A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution.
Composition of the Constituent Assembly: It was the Cabinet Mission that had put forth the idea of a Constituent Assembly and, therefore the composition of the Assembly was made in line with the Cabinet Mission scheme.
The structure of the Constituent Assembly was:
- 292 members elected through the Provincial Legislative Assemblies.
- The Indian Princely States was represented by 93 members: and
- The Chief Commissioners’ Provinces were represented by 4 members.
- Thus, the total membership of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. But the Mountbatten Plan of 3rd June 1947 led to the partition of India thereby leading to a formation of a separate Constituent Assembly for the newly made Pakistan. This ceased some of the representatives of certain Provinces to be members of the Assembly, resulting in a reduction of the membership to 299 members.
- The working of the Constituent Assembly proceeded based on the Objectives Resolution that was laid before the Assembly on 13th December 1946 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 January 1947.
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