After Independence

With the independence of India on August 15, 1947, the Constituent Assembly became a sovereign body responsible for framing the constitution as well as making ordinary laws. Now the work of Constituent Assembly was organised into five stages: first—committees were required to present reports on basic issues; second—Benegal Narsing Rau, a judge of the Calcutta High Court and also the constitutional adviser of the constituent assembly, prepared an initial draft on the basis of the reports of these committees and on his own research into the constitutions of other countries; third—the drafting committee, under the chairmanship of Dr

B.R. Ambedkar, presented a detailed draft constitution which was published for public discussion and comments. Criticisms and counter-criticisms in the press in turn moulded the nature of the consensus that was ultimately reached on specific issues; fourth—the draft constitution was debated and amendments proposed; fifth—the Constitution of India was adopted.

Drafting Committee

(1) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Chairman) (2) G.B. Pant (3) K.M. Munshi

(4) Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer (5) N. Gopalaswami Ayengar (6) B.L. Mitra (later replaced with Madhav Rao) (7) Sayyid Muhammad Sadullah (7) D.P. Khaitan died in 1948 and hence T.T. Krishnamachari was appointed.