Laxmikanth Test: Historical Development of the Constitution of India- 3 - SSC MTS / SSC GD MCQ

Charter Act of 1833 was the final step towards centralization in British India.
Features of the Act were:

• It made the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India, vesting in him all civil and military powers. 
• Thus, the act created, for the first time, a Government of India having authority over the entire territorial area possessed by the British in India. 
• Lord William Bentick was the first governor-general of India.
• It deprived the governor of Bombay and Madras of their legislative powers. 
• The Governor-General of India was given exclusive legislative powers for the entire British India. 
• The laws made under the previous acts were called as Regulations while laws made under this act were called as Acts.
• East India Company ended as a commercial body and became a purely administrative body by this act.
• Act said that the company’s territories in India were held by it in trust for His Majesty, His heirs and successors’.
• The Charter Act of 1833 attempted to introduce open competition for selection of civil servants.
• It also stated that the Indians should not be debarred from holding any place, office and employment under the Company. 
• But, this provision was negated after opposition from the Court of Directors.

The Governor-General of Bengal was made the Governor-General of India by the Charter Act of 1833 not 1853.
It was the Charter Act, of 1853 that separated the legislative and executive functions of the Governor-General's council for the first time.

• This important Act was enacted in the wake of the Revolt of 1857 - also known as the First War of Independence or the ‘sepoy mutiny’.

• The act is known as the Act for the Good Government of India.

• It abolished the East India Company, and transferred the powers of government, territories and revenues to the British Crown.

Features of the Act were -

• It provided that India was now to be governed by, and in the name of, Her Majesty. 
• Governor-General of India would now be Viceroy of India. 
• Viceroy was the direct representative of the British Crown in India. 
• Lord Canning became the first Viceroy of India.
• It abolished the Board of Control and Court of Directors thus ending the system of double government.
• It created a new office, Secretary of State for India, having complete authority and control over Indian administration. 
• The secretary of state was a member of the British cabinet and was responsible ultimately to the British Parliament.
• It established a 15-member Council of India to assist the secretary of state for India. 
• The Council was an advisory body with secretary of state as chairman of the council.
• It formed the secretary of state-in-council as a body corporate which is capable of suing and being sued in India and in England.

• The Act of 1858 was, however, largely confined to the improvement of the administrative machinery by which the Indian Government was to be supervised and controlled in England.

• It did not alter in any substantial way the system of government that prevailed in India.

• After the revolt of 1857, the British Government felt the necessity of seeking the co-operation of the Indians in the administration of India.

• For this, three acts were enacted by the British Parliament in 1861, 1892 and 1909.

• System of Budget in British India was introduced in 1860.

• The Indian Councils Act of 1861 is a significant landmark in the constitutional and political history of India.

Features of the Act of 1861 were

• It started associating Indians with the law-making process, thus making a beginning of representative institutions. It provided that the viceroy should nominate some Indians as non-official members of his expanded council. 
• In 1862, Lord Canning, the then viceroy, nominated three Indians to his legislative council—the Raja of Benaras, the Maharaja of Patiala and Sir Dinkar Rao.
• It restored the legislative powers to the Bombay and Madras Presidencies thus initiating the process of decentralization opposed to the centralising tendency that started from the Regulating Act of 1773 and reaching its peak under the Charter Act of 1833. 
• This devolution resulted in the grant of almost complete internal autonomy to the provinces in 1937.
• It also provided for the establishment of new legislative councils for Bengal, North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and Punjab, which were established in 1862, 1866 and 1897, respectively.
• Viceroy could make rules and orders for the more convenient transaction of business in the council. 
• It recognized the ‘portfolio’ system, introduced by Lord Canning in 1859. 
• Under this, a member of the Viceroy’s council was made in-charge of one or more departments of the government and was authorized to issue final orders on behalf of the council on matters of his department(s).
• Viceroy could now issue ordinances, which were valid for 6 months, without the concurrence of the legislative council, during an emergency.

The word election was used for the first time.

The Indian Councils Act, 1892

• The Indian Councils Act, 1892 increased the number of additional members in the central and provincial legislative councils, but maintained the official majority in them.
• The act increased the functions of legislative councils and gave them the power of discussing the budget and addressing questions to the executive.
• It provided for the nomination of some non-official members of the
  • Central Legislative Council by the viceroy on the recommendation of the provincial legislative councils and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, and
  • that of the Provincial legislative councils by the Governors on the recommendation of the district boards, municipalities, universities, trade associations, zamindars and chambers.
• The act made a limited and indirect provision for the use of election in filling up some of the nonofficial seats both in the Central and provincial legislative councils.
• The word “election” was, however, not used in the act. Hence, Option 4 is NOT correct.

Features of the Act were:

• It ended the British rule in India and declared India as an independent and sovereign state from August 15, 1947.

• It ended British rule in India and created the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The act also provided for the right of the two dominions to secede from the British Commonwealth.

• It abolished the office of viceroy and provided, for each dominion, a governor-general, who was to be appointed by the British King on the advice of the dominion cabinet.

• His Majesty’s Government in Britain was to have no responsibility with respect to the Government of India or Pakistan.

• The Constituent Assemblies of the two dominions could frame and adopt any constitution for themselves and repeal any act of the British Parliament, including the Independence act itself.

• It empowered the Constituent Assemblies of both the dominions to legislate for their respective territories till the new constitutions were drafted and enforced.

• No Act of the British Parliament passed after August 15, 1947 was to extend to either of the new dominions unless, it was extended by a law made by legislature of the dominion.

• It abolished the office of the secretary of state for India and transferred his functions to the secretary of state for Commonwealth Affairs.

• It proclaimed the lapse of British paramountcy over the Indian princely states and treaty relations with tribal areas from August 15,1947.

• It granted freedom to the Indian princely states either to join the Dominion of India or Dominion of Pakistan or to remain independent.

• It provided for the governance of each of the dominions and the provinces by the Government of India Act of 1935, till the new Constitutions were framed. The dominions could make modifications in the Act.

• British Monarch could not veto bills or ask for reservation of certain bills for his approval.

• But, the Governor-General can assent to any bill in the name of His Majesty.

• Governor-General of India and the provincial governors were termed as constitutional (nominal) heads of the states. They were to act on the advice of the respective council of ministers in all matters.

• It dropped the title of Emperor of India from the royal titles of the king of England.

• It discontinued the appointment to civil services and reservation of posts by the secretary of state for India.

• The members of the civil services appointed before August 15, 1947 would continue to enjoy all benefits that they were entitled to till that time.

• It was M. N. Roy, a pioneer of communist movement in India and an advocate of radical democratism, who put forward the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India in 1934 for the first time.  In 1935, the Indian National Congress (INC), for the first time, officially demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame the Constitution of India. 
• In 1938, Jawaharlal Nehru, on behalf the INC declared that ‘the Constitution of free India must be framed, without outside interference, by a Constituent Assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise’.
• The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.

 B.N. Rau and S.N. Mukherjee were the two civil servants who assisted the Constituent Assembly in framing the Constitution of India. 

• The Muslim League members (hailing from the areas7 included in the Pakistan) withdrew from the Constituent Assembly for India. Consequently, the total strength of the Assembly came down to 299 as against 389 originally fixed in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan. 
• The strength of the Indian provinces (formerly British Provinces) was reduced from 296 to 229 and those of the princely states from 93 to 70. 

The Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946 on the basis of the cabinet mission plan.

• On December 13, 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the historic ‘Objectives Resolution’ in the Assembly.
• It laid down the fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure.
• The Resolution was unanimously adopted by the Assembly on January 22, 1947.
• It influenced the eventual shaping of the constitution through all its subsequent stages.
• Its modified version forms the Preamble of the present Constitution.

The 'Objective Resolution' which laid down the fundamentals and philosophy of the constitutional structure which read as:

• This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution. Wherein the territories that now comprise British India, the territories that now form the Indian States, and such other parts of India as are outside India and the States as well as other territories as are willing to be constituted into the independent sovereign India, shall be a Union of them all; and
• Wherein the said territories, whether with their present boundaries or with such others as may be determined by the Constituent Assembly and thereafter according to the law of the Constitution, shall possess and retain the status of autonomous units together with residuary powers and exercise all powers and functions of Government and administration save and except such powers and functions as are vested in or assigned to the Union or as are inherent or implied in the Union or resulting there from; and
• Wherein all power and authority of the Sovereign Independent India, its constituent parts and organs of Government are derived from the people; and
• wherein shall be guaranteed and secured to all the people of India justice, social, economic and political; equality of status of opportunity, and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality; and
• Where in adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes; and
• Where by shall be maintained the integrity of the territory of the Republic and its sovereign rights on land, sea and air according to justice and the law of civilized nations; and
• This ancient land attains its rightful and honoured place in the world and makes its full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind.

• The Parliament is vested with the powers to amend the Constitution by way of addition, variation or repeal of any provision.
• The major part of the Constitution can be amended by the Parliament with special majority, that is, a majority (that is, more than 50 per cent) of the total membership of each House and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting in each House.
• We borrowed features from South Africa were:
  1. Election of members of the Rajya Sabha
  2. Amendment of the Constitution.

The National Anthem of India Jana-gana-mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950.

• The Constituent Assembly held its first meeting on December 9, 1946. The Muslim League boycotted the meeting and insisted on a separate state of Pakistan. The meeting was thus attended by only 211 members. Dr Sachidanand Sinha, the oldest member, was elected as the temporary President of the Assembly, following the French practice.
• Later, on December 11, 1946, Dr Rajendra Prasad and H C Mukherjee were elected as the President and Vice-President of the Assembly respectively. Sir B N Rau was appointed as the Constitutional advisor to the Assembly.