Previous Year Questions: Making Of The Constitution - UPSC MCQ

The Interim Government was formed in 1946 after electing the Constituent Assembly. It contained members from Congress and Muslim League as well as independents. It was headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad served as the Minister for Food and Agriculture.

The Constituent Assembly was elected indirectly through the Provincial Assemblies in 1946. Jinnah was not a member of the Constituent Assembly. The first session was held in 1946 and it adopted the Constitution on 26 November 1949.

The members of the Constituent Assembly were elected through indirect elections by the Provincial Legislative Assemblies in 1946.

The DPSP was taken from the Irish Constitution, the Fundamental Rights from the American Constitution, the concurrent List from Australian Constitution and the concept of Union of states with a strong Centre from the Canadian Constitution. 

The Government of India Act, 1935 served as great source of inspiration for various provisions in the Constitution of India. One such provision is the character of distribution of powers between the Centre and States.

The elections to the Constituent Assembly were conducted indirectly by the members of the various Provincial Assemblies and the Assemblies in the 4 Chief Cmmissioner’s Provinces.

All the options are rightly matched. Though most of the emergency provisions were borrowed from the GOI Act, 1935, the provision for suspension of the Fundamental Rights during an emergency was taken from the constitution of Weimar Germany.

The Constituent Assembly was not directly elected by the people of India on the basis of Adult Franchise but the voting was by the method of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. It represented almost all section of Indian Society. It had Congress Party, Muslim League and other small and Independent groups making it multi-party Assembly. It appointed several Committees to deal with different tasks of Constitution Making

Hence, the correct option is c.

The Constituent Assembly had a total of 11 sessions over 2 years, 11 months and 18 days.

The Constitution’s first draft was prepared by the official constitutional advisor of the Constituent Assembly- B. N Rao. It was based on this first draft the Drafting Committee made changes and modifications.

There were 8 major and 13 minor Committees in the Constituent Assembly. Rajendra Prasad was the chairman of the National Flag Committee.

The first permanent President and Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly were Rajendra Prasad and H. C Mookherjee respectively. V.T Krishnamachari represented the Princely states of Rajasthan while K. M Munshi was the lone member of the Congress in the original Drafting Committee. The Chairman of the Union Constitution committee was J. L Nehru.

The National Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly during a session on 22 July 1947.

The Constituent Assembly met for the last time on 24 January 1950.

Key Points

• The concept of "A Union of States in the Indian Constitution" has been derived from The British North-American Act.
• Federation with a strong Centre is what we call A Union of States in the Indian Constitution hence it is taken from the Canadian constitution i.e  The British North-American Act.

Additional Information

• Concept of Concurrent list, Article 108, Joint sitting of the two houses and Freedom of trade and commerce is taken from Australian Constitution.
• Impeachment of the president, Functions of president and vice-president, Removal of Supreme Court and High court judges, Fundamental Rights, Judicial review, Independence of the judiciary, and the Preamble of the constitution of the Indian constitution is taken from the constitution of the USA.
• Centrifugal form of federalism where the center is stronger than the states, Residuary powers vest with the center, Centre appoints the Governors at the states, Advisory jurisdiction of the supreme court of the constitution of the Indian constitution is taken from the constitution of Canada.
• Fundamental duties and ideals of justice (social, economic, and political),  expressed in the Preamble are taken from the constitution of Russia.
• Concepts of Republic and Ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (contained in the Preamble) are taken from the constitution of France.
• Fundamental Rights are suspended during Emergencies are taken from the constitution of Germany.
• The election of members of the Rajya Sabha and the Amendment of the Constitution is taken from the constitution of South Africa.
• The concept of procedure established by Law is taken from the constitution of Japan.

Hence the correct option is 'A'

The eminent lawyer of the time, B. N Rao was chosen as the Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly.

The Drafting Committee was one of the most important Committees that worked under the Constituent Assembly. It had 7 members with B. R Ambedkar as its Chairman. The 7 initial members were- B. R Ambedkar, K. M Munshi, Alladi Krishnaswamy Aiyer, N. Gopalaswami, Mohammed Saadullah, B. L Mitter, D. P Khaitan. The latter two resigned and passed away respectively and were replaced with N. Madhav Rao and T. T Krishnamachari.

The Constituent Assembly was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949.

The very first meeting of the Constituent Assembly was held on 9 December 1946.

The Constituent Assembly was set up under the recommendations of the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.