A Constitution is a document of people faith and aspirations possessing a special legal sanctity. It is the fundamental law of a country and all other laws and customs of the country in order to be legally valid shall conform to the constitution. It is the supreme law of the land. It sets out the framework and the principal functions of various organs of the government, viz , the Executive. Legislature and judiciary as well as relations between the government and the people which is called citizenship. It prescribes the extent of the sovereign powers of the organs of the government and the manner of its exercise. In short, a Constitution is the rule book of a nation. Codifying The rule of law.

FARMING OR MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

The present Constitution of India was framed by an elected Constituent Assembly, and was formally adopted on 26th November, 1949. It came into force on 26th January 1950 - as desired by Pandit Nehru. The Constituent Assembly was set up under the Cabinet Minister (1946) proposal to draft a Constitution for independent India. It was a large representative body having385 members of which 292 were elected by the elected members of the provincial Legislative Assemblies while 93 members were nominated by the princely States But when the Muslim League decided to withdraw its members form the Constituent Assembly of India and with the creation of a separate Constituent Assembly for Pakistan on july16, 1947. The membership of the Constituent Assembly of India was reduced t 299, out of which 299 represented the Provinces and 70 were nominated by the Princely State.

The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly had Taken place on December 9, 1946 with Dr. Sachidanand Sinha as the interim President. Subsequently, Dr. Rajendra Prasad was elected as its President on 11th December 1946 . To cope with the wide range of the specialized tasks, the Constituent Assembly formed major Committees to outline the proposed Constitution such as, Committee on Union Constitution, Union Powers Committee (both headed by J.L. Nehru), Committee on Fundamental Rights, Advisory Committee (both headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel), Committee on Concessions to Minorities, Committee on the Supreme Court and the High Courts etc. All these Committees Submitted their reports which were widely discussed by the Constituent Assembly.

GUIDELINES LAID DOWN FOR FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION

The Constitution is the supreme law of the nation. It cannot be draft or adopted in a hurry. It must have a philosophical base reflecting the nation’s ethos and the reason of the leaders past and present. The philosophy underlying the Indian Constitution was embodied quite early in the objective resolution which was moved in the first session of the Constituent assembly on December 13, 1946 by Pt. J.L. Nehru and adopted after Considerable debate and deliberation in the assembly on January 22 1947.

1. To foster unity of the nation and to insure its economy and political security, to have a written Constitution, and to proclaim India has a Sovereign Democratic Republic.
2. To have federal from of government with the distribution of powers between the centre and the states.
3. To guarantee and secure justice, inequality freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action to all the people of India.
4. To provide adequate safeguards for minorities, backward and tribal areas and depressed and other backward classes.
5. To maintain the integrity of the territory of the republic and the sovereign rights of land, sea and air according to the law of civilized nations.
6. To attain right full and honoured place in the world and make willing contribution to the promotion of world pace and the welfare of mankind.

DIFFERENT SOURCES OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

The architects of Indian Constitution went through all the then exiting major Constitutions of the world before drafting their own and as Dr. Ambedkar observed, they tried to accommodate the best possible and time-tested features of each of them to the requirement of the country. Therefore, Constitution of India is often described as ‘a bag of borrowings’ as it freely drew from the Constitutions of various other countries and the Government of India Act,1935. But, the largest influence was exercised on them by the Government of India Act, 1935.

Schedules of the Indian Constitution

The constitution of India at the time of adoption had only eight Schedules to which four more were added during the last fifty-seven years through various amendments.

Parts of the India constitution