Constitutional Law of India - 1

Module 1

Topic 4Historical Perspective

By Gagan K

Historical Perspective

• Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950

• Prior to this, India governed by Government of India Act, 1935 (effective from 1937)

• India was a part of British Crown. And the Crown was the sovereign

Government of India Act, 1935

• Organisational Structure• On the top was the British Parliament and Crown who

were supreme• Under the Parliament and Crown was a “Secretary of

State for India” who was a British Cabinet Member• Under this Secretary of state, one Governor General was

placed. He was appointed by the Crown• Governor general was expected to listen to the ministers,

however he was free to reject their advice• Under the Governor general were the governors of the

provinces. Governors were expected to listen to the ministers elected by way of limited franchise. However, the governor was free to reject their advice!

In result…

1. Govt of India Act, 1935 envisaged a ministerial form of Govt., BUT in practice, it was not followed.

2. A federal structure of formed

3. But not fully functional

4. Many states were ruled by native rulers

This resulted in the increased struggle for freedom by the Indians.

Constitutional Process

• Constitutional Assembly debates for making of the Constitution commenced on December 9, 1946

• Major problem between Indian National Congress (INC) and Muslim League

• As a result, Indo-Pak partition

• Constitution of India was finalised and adopted on November 26, 1949

Constitutional Law of India slides by Gagan Krishnadas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

gagan555@gmail.com