5. Sessions, Adoption, Functions & Assembly Facts

Important Sessions timelines

Total sessions held 11 sessions for 165 days - Total time taken for drafting the Constitution 2 years 11 months 18 days - 1st Session (9-23rd December 1946) - 10th Session (6-17th October 1949) - 11th Session (14-26th November 1949, also the last session).

Constitution Signing & Budget

No. of members who signed constitution on 24th Jan 1950 was 284 (including 15 female members) - Budget was 64 lakhs (to frame the Constitution).

Constitution Adoption Day

26th November 1949 (Constitution was adopted, this day is also celebrated as the "Constitution Day").

Constitution Enforcement Day

Commenced on 26th January 1950, Celebrated as Republic Day - Reason for choosing this date is because on the same day in 1930 Purna Swaraj day was celebrated following the Lahore session of the Congress (1929).

Provisions enforced early on 26th November 1949

Citizenship (Article 5-9) - Elections (Article 324-329) - Provisional Parliament.

Original Constitution composition

Consisted of 395 Articles, 8 Schedules, 22 Parts and a Preamble.

Functions of the Constituent Assembly (Chairs & Meeting 1)

1st meeting 9 Dec 1946 - Whenever the assembly met as the constituent body it was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and when it met as the legislative body it was chaired by G.V. Mavalankar.

Constituent Assembly Leadership

Temporary President before elections (Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha) - President after elections (Dr. Rajendra Prasad) - Vice President (V. T. Krishnamachari and H. C. Mukherjee).

Additional Functions of Constituent Assembly

Functioned as the 'First Parliament of India' - Adopted National Flag on 22 July, 1947 - Ratified India's membership of the Commonwealth in May 1949 - Elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as 1st President of India on 26 Jan 1950.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad timeline (Handwritten Note)

Elected Dec '46, became prez after constitution commenced (26/01/1950).

National Anthem & Song Adoption

Adopted National Anthem ("Jana Gana Mana" by Rabindranath Tagore) and National Song ("Vande Mataram" by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee) on 24 January, 1950.

Midnight Session Speaker

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was one of the speakers after Jawaharlal Nehru to address the Parliament on the midnight of 15th Aug 1947.

Socialist Party demand

Called for the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and its re-election by adult suffrage.

B.R. Ambedkar 26th Jan 1950 quote

"On the 26th Jan 1950, we are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality.".

Designer of Indian National Flag

Pingali Venkayya (Approved by Mahatma Gandhi in a congress meeting in Vijayawada in 1921).

Somnath Lehri

Said "Constituent assembly was a conspiracy of Britishers" (book-Samyobad) and was a writer and editor of the left newspaper Swadhinata.

HM Seervai

Authored book 'Constitutional law of India', a comprehensive commentary on the Indian Constitution.

Constitution Volumes & Language

The printed records of the Constituent assembly discussions were compiled into 12 Volumes - Language of the Constitution was English.

Constitution Calligraphers

English was Prem Bihari Narain Raizada - Hindi was Vasant Krishan Vaidya.

Constitution Decoration & Secretarial staff

Decorated by Nand Lal Bose and Beohar Rammanohar Sinha - Secretary of Constituent Assembly was H. V. Iyengar.

Constitution size & symbol

India's constitution is the largest written constitution, its symbol is the Elephant.

Important Female members of The Constituent Assembly

Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (1st Health minister) - Sucheta Kriplani (1st female Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) - Sarojini Naidu (1st Governor of Uttar Pradesh).