■ MAJOR COMMITTEES OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY #Constituentassembly
◇ Union Powers Committee - Jawaharlal Nehru
◇ Union Constitution Committee -Jawaharlal Nehru
◇ Provincial Constitution Committee -Sardar Patel
◇ Drafting Committee - Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
◇ Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas - Sardar Patel.
□ This committee had the following five sub- committees :-
• Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee - J.B. Kripalani
• Minorities Sub-Committee - H.C. Mukherjee
• North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and Assam Excluded & Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee - Gopinath Bardoloi
• Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas (other than those in Assam) Sub-Committee - A.V. Thakkar
• North-West Frontier Tribal Areas Sub-Committee.
◇ Rules of Procedure Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
◇ States Committee (Committee for Negotiating with States) - Jawaharlal Nehru
◇ Steering Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad
■ MINOR COMMITTEE #Constituentassembly
◇ Finance and Staff Committee - Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
◇ Credentials Committee - Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar.
◇ House Committee - B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
◇ Order of Business Committee - Dr. K.M. Munshi.
◇ Ad-hoc Committee on the National Flag - Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
◇ Committee on the Functions of the Constituent Assembly - G.V. Mavalankar.
◇ Ad-hoc Committee on the Supreme Court - S. Varadachari (Not an Assembly Member).
◇ Committee on Chief Commissioners’ Provinces - B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya.
◇ Expert Committee on the Financial Provisions of the Union Constitution -Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (Not an Assembly Member).
◇ Linguistic Provinces Commission - S.K. Dar (Not an Assembly Member).
◇ On April 28, 1947, representatives of the six states were part of the Assembly. After the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947, for the partition of the country, the
representatives of most of the other
princely states took their seats in the Assembly.
◇ The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the following three changes in the position of the Assembly:
• The Assembly was made a fully sovereign body, which could frame any Constitution it pleased.
The act empowered the Assembly to abrogate or alter any law made by the British Parliament in relation to India.
• The Assembly also became a legislative body. In other words, two separate functions were assigned to the Assembly, that is,
■ OBJECTIVE RESOLUTION #Constituentassembly
◇ On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the historic ‘Objective Resolution’ in the Assembly. It laid down fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure.
□ It read:-
◇ “This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent, Sovereign, Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution:
◇ Wherein the territories that now comprise British India,
the territories that now form the Indian States and such other parts of India as are outside India and the States as well as other territories as are willing to be constitut -ed into the independent sovereign India, shall be a Union of them all .