The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It
lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles,
establishes the structure, procedures, powers and duties of government
institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles and
the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any
sovereign country in the world. B. R. Ambedkar, the chairman of the
Drafting Committee, is widely considered to be its chief architect.
It imparts constitutional supremacy and not parliamentary
supremacy, as it is not created by the Parliament but, by a constituent
assembly, and adopted by its people, with a declaration in its preamble.
Parliament cannot override the constitution.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, chairman of the Drafting Committee,
presenting the final draft of the Indian Constitution to Dr. Rajendra
Prasad on 25 November, 1949.
It was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November
1949, and came into effect on 26 January 1950. With its adoption, the
Union of India became the modern and contemporary Republic of India
replacing the Government of India Act, 1935 as the country's fundamental
governing document. To ensure constitutional autochthony, the framers
of the constitution repealed the prior Acts of the British Parliament
via Article 395 of the constitution. India celebrates its coming into
force on 26 January each year, as Republic Day.
It was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was
elected by elected members of the provincial assemblies. The 389 member
Constituent Assembly took almost three years (two years, eleven months
and eighteen days to be precise) to complete its historic task of
drafting the Constitution for independent India, during which, it held
eleven sessions over 165 days. Of these, 114 days were spent on the
consideration of the draft Constitution. On 29 August 1947, the
Constituent Assembly set up a Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship
of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to prepare a draft Constitution for India. While
deliberating upon the draft Constitution, the assembly moved, discussed
and disposed of as many as 2,473 amendments out of a total of 7,635
tabled. Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Sanjay Phakey, Jawaharlal Nehru, C.
Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Kanaiyalal
Munshi, Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, Sandipkumar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Nalini Ranjan Ghosh, and Balwantrai
Mehta were some important figures in the assembly. There were more than
30 members of the scheduled classes. Frank Anthony represented the
Anglo-Indian community, and the Parsis were represented by H. P. Modi.
The Chairman of the Minorities Committee was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, a
distinguished Christian who represented all Christians other than
Anglo-Indians. Ari Bahadur Gurung represented the Gorkha
Community.[citation needed] Prominent jurists like Alladi Krishnaswamy
Iyer, Benegal Narsing Rau and K. M. Munshi, Ganesh Mavlankar were also
members of the Assembly. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh,
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Vijayalakshmi Pandit were important women
members
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