EXPERTS COMMITTEE OF THE CONGRESS‌

While elections to the Constituent Assembly were still in progress, on July 8, 1946, the Congress Party (Indian National Congress) appointed an Experts Committee for the purpose of preparing material for the Constituent Assembly. This committee consisted of the following members8b :

1. Jawaharlal Nehru (Chairman)

2. M. Asaf Ali

3. K.M. Munshi

4. N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar

5. K.T. Shah

6. D.R. Gadgil

7. Humayun Kabir

8. K. Santhanam

Later, on the Chairman’s proposal, it was resolved that Krishna Kripalani be co-opted as member and convener of the committee.

The committee had two sittings, the first at New Delhi from July 20 to 22, 1946, and the second at Bombay from August 15 to 17,

1946.

Apart from a number of notes prepared by its members, the committee discussed the procedure to be adopted by the Constituent Assembly, the question of the appointment of various committees and the draft of a resolution on the objectives of the constitution to be moved during the first session of the Constituent Assembly8c .

On the role played by this committee in the making of the Constitution, Granville Austin, a British constitutional expert, observed: "It was the Congress Experts Committee that set India on the road to her present Constitution. The committee members, working within the framework of the Cabinet Mission Scheme, made general suggestions about autonomous areas, the powers of provincial Governments and the Centre, and about such issues as the princely states and the amending power. They also drafted a resolution, closely resembling the Objectives Resolution”.8d