The present constitution of India was framed by the Constituent Assembly of India set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16, 1946. The idea of establishing a Constituent Assembly to draw up the Indian Constitution was not a new one. The American Constitution was framed by a Constituent Assembly.
In fact, American Constituent Assembly has proved to be model to the democratic world. Till independence, India was governed under the Acts passed by the British Parliament. In 1938, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru declared: “The Indian National Congress stands for independence and a democratic State.
It has proposed that the constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise.
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That is the democratic way and there is no other way short of revolution, which can bring the needed result. An assembly so elected will represent the people as a whole and will be far more interested in the economic and social problems of the masses than in the petty communal issues which affect small groups.”
The inaugural meeting of the Constituent Assembly of India was held on December 9, 1946. It was presided over by Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha who was the oldest member of the Assembly. On December 11, 1946, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected President of the Constituent Assembly, and all further deliberations of the Constituent Assembly were chaired by him.
On December 13, 1946, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru moved the “objectives resolution” which later became the Preamble to the constitution.
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A number of committees submitted reports to the Constituent Assembly on the different aspects of the constitution. On the basis of these reports a draft of the constitution was prepared by Constitutional Adviser, Sri B.N. Rao.
The Drafting Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Ambedkar worked oft the draft and produced the Draft Constitution with 315 articles and 8 schedules. The Draft Constitution was considered by the Constituent Assembly.
In its progress through the Constituent Assembly, the constitution grew in bulk and took its final shape with 395 articles and 8 schedules. The time taken in accomplishing this task was exactly two years, eleven months and 17 days from the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly on 9th December, 1946 till November 26, 1949 when “We, the people of India” gave unto ourselves the new constitution.