On the 14 August 1947 meeting of the Assembly, a proposal for forming various committees was

presented.[9] Such committees included a Committee on Fundamental Rights, the Union Powers
Committee and Union Constitution Committee. On 29 August 1947, the Drafting Committee was
appointed, with Dr B. R. Ambedkar as the Chairman along with six other members assisted by a
constitutional advisor. These members were Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Kanaiyalal Maneklal
Munshi (K M Munshi, Ex- Home Minister, Bombay), Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer (Ex- Advocate
General, Madras State), N Gopalaswami Ayengar (Ex-Prime Minister, J&K and later member of
Nehru Cabinet), B L Mitter (Ex-Advocate General, India), Md. Saadullah (Ex- Chief Minister of
Assam, Muslim League member) and D P Khaitan (Scion of Khaitan Business family and a
renowned lawyer). The constitutional advisor was Sir Benegal Narsing Rau (who became First
Indian Judge in International Court of Justice, 1950–54). Later B L Mitter resigned and was
replaced by Madhav Rao (Legal Advisor of Maharaja of Vadodara). Owing to death of D P
Khaitan, T T Krishnamachari was chosen to be included in the drafting committee. A Draft
Constitution was prepared by the committee and submitted to the Assembly on 4 November
1947. Draft constitution was debated and over 2000 amendments were moved over a period of
two years. Finally on 26 Nov. 1949, the process was completed and Constituent assembly
adopted the constitution. 284 members signed the document and the process of constitution
making was complete. [10]

The architects of Indian constitution were most heavily influenced by the British model of
parliamentary democracy. In addition, a number of principles were adopted from the
Constitution of the United States of America, including the separation of powers among the
major branches of government, the establishment of a supreme court, and the system of having a
President as well as a Prime Minister. The principles adopted from Canada were Unitary
government with strong centre and also distribution of powers between central government and
provinces along with placing residuary powers with central government.From Ireland, directive
principle of state policy was adopted. From Germany the principle of suspension of fundamental
rights during emergency was adopted. From Australia the idea of having of Concurrent list of
shared powers was used as well and some of the terminology was utilized for the preamble. The
Assembly met in sessions open to the public, for 166 days, spread over a period of 2 years, 11
months and 18 days before adopting the Constitution, the 308 members of the Assembly signed
two copies of the document (one each in Hindi and English) on 24 January 1950. The original
Constitution of India is hand-written with beautiful calligraphy, each page beautified and
decorated by artists from Shantiniketan including Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and Nandalal
Bose. Two days later, on 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India became the law of all the
States and territories of India. Rs. 1,00,00,000 was official estimate of expenditure on constituent
assembly. The Constitution has undergone many amendments since its enactment.[11]

Parts[edit]

The individual Articles of the Constitution are grouped together into the following Parts:

 Preamble
 Part I[13] – Union and its Territory
 Part II[14] – Citizenship.
 Part III – Fundamental Rights.
  Part IV[15] – Directive Principles of State Policy.
 Part IVA – Fundamental Duties.
 Part V[16] – The Union.
 Part VI[17] – The States.
 Part VII[18] – States in the B part of the First schedule(Repealed).
 Part VIII[19] – The Union Territories
 Part IX[20] – The Panchayats.
 Part IXA – The Municipalities.
 Part IXB – The Cooperative Societies
 Part X – The scheduled and Tribal Areas
 Part XI – Relations between the Union and the States.

 Part XII – Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits

 Part XIII – Trade and Commerce within the territory of India
 Part XIV – Services Under the Union, the States.
 Part XIVA – Tribunals.
 Part XV – Elections
 Part XVI – Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes.
 Part XVII – Languages
 Part XVIII – Emergency Provisions
 Part XIX – Miscellaneous
 Part XX – Amendment of the Constitution
 Part XXI – Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
 Part XXII – Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals

Schedules[edit]

Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorize and tabulate bureaucratic activity and
policy of the Government.

 First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4)- This lists the states and territories of India, lists any
changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change.
 Second Schedule (Articles 59(3), 65(3), 75(6), 97, 125, 148(3), 158(3), 164(5), 186 and
221)- – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller
and Auditor General of India.
 Third Schedule (Articles 75(4), 99, 124(6), 148(2), 164(3), 188 and 219)—Forms of
Oaths – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges.
 Fourth Schedule (Articles 4(1) and 80(2)) – This details the allocation of seats in the
Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory.
 Fifth Schedule (Article 244(1)) – This provides for the administration and control of
Scheduled Areas[Note 2] and Scheduled Tribes[Note 3] (areas and tribes needing special
protection due to disadvantageous conditions).
 Sixth Schedule (Articles 244(2) and 275(1))— Provisions for the administration of tribal
areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
  Seventh Schedule (Article 246)—The union (central government), state, and concurrent
lists of responsibilities.
 Eighth Schedule (Articles 344(1) and 351)—The official languages.
 Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) – Originally Articles mentioned here were immune from
judicial review on the ground that they violated fundamental rights. but in a landmark
judgement in 2007, the Supreme Court of India held in I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil
Nadu and others that laws included in the 9th schedule can be subject to judicial review if
they voilated the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 14, 15, 19, 21 or the basic
structure of the Constitution {(ambiguous)}[21]
 Tenth Schedule (Articles 102(2) and 191(2))—"Anti-defection" provisions for Members
of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures.
 Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-D)—Panchayat Raj (rural local government).
 Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W)—Municipalities (urban local government).

Amendment

Amendments to the Constitution are made by the Parliament, the procedure for which is laid out
in Article 368. An amendment bill must be passed by both the Houses of the Parliament by a
two-thirds majority and voting. In addition to this, certain amendments which pertain to the
federal nature of the Constitution must be ratified by a majority of state legislatures.

As of September 2012 there have been 118 amendment bills presented in the Parliament, out of
which 97 have been passed to become Amendment Acts.[22] Most of these amendments address
issues dealt with by statute in other democracies. However, the Constitution is so specific in
spelling out government powers that many of these issues must be addressed by constitutional
amendment. As a result, the document is amended roughly twice a year.

In 2000 the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was set
up to look into updating the constitution.[23]