SHIVANI JOHRI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR FROM SHARDA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRACT
The making of the Indian Constitution was unparalleled in its scope — the well-being of a nation with a magnificent diversity of languages, faiths, customs, and differences of caste, creed ,ethnicity etc
The Constitution of India was framed by a Constituent Assembly set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946. The Assembly consisted of 389 members representing provinces (292), states (93), the Chief Commissioner Provinces (3) and Baluchistan (1). The Assembly held its first meeting on December 9, 1946, and elected Dr.Sachhidanand Sinha, the oldest member of the Assembly as the Provisional President. On December 11, 1946, the Assembly elected Dr Rajendra Prasad as its permanent Chairman. The strength of the Assembly was reduced to 299 (229 representing the provinces and 70 representing the states) following withdrawal of the Muslim League members after the partition of the country.
According to Granville Austin, the success of the constitution lies in having been framed by Indians and in the excellence of the framing process itself.1 The assembly members applied foreign concepts in Indian setting with great pains and thus, evolved the doctrine of accommodation according to which accommodation was applied to the various principles embodied in the constitution. The Indian constituent assembly so elected was widely criticized by various eminent jurists like Jaya Prakash Narain said it was a “restricted and curbed assembly”; Churchill said it represented only one major community of India and Simons said it was a ‘body of Hindus” Constitution being the Suprema-Lex, still suffers from a significant-lacunae both in framing and implementation.