Constitutional Developments

( a) Cabinet Mission Small Plan of 1945,Formation of Constituent Assembly and Provisional grounds Mountbatten Plan.

(b) Indian Independence Act 1947.(c) Drafting of Constitution, Development in Indian States, adoption of constitution, salient features of Indian Constitution, Need for Review.

• The rejection of the Cripps proposals was followed by the Quit India campaign, launched by the Congress in August 1942 and the conference convened by Lord Wavell the Governor-General, at Simla, where an attempt was made to bring about an agreement, between the two major political parties in India, Since no such agreement emerged from the Conference, another attempt was made by the British government in May 1946, when it sent a delegation consisting of three Cabinet Ministers to India with a plan known as the Cabinet Mission Plan.

• This was the last serious effort made by the British government to maintain the unity of India as one country. While rejecting the Muslim claim for a separate Constituent Assembly and a separate State, it gave ample scope to the Muslim majority provinces to organise themselves into an autonomous State, short of secession from the Union of India A Union of India, under the plan, comprising both British India and the Indian States, was to have jurisdiction over the subjects of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Communications, while all the residuary powers were to be left to the Provinces and the States. Moreover, though the Central Executive and the Central Legislature were to exercise control over the subjects so specified, any question raising a major communal issue in the Legislature could be passed only if it had been supported by a majority of the representatives of the two major communities separately.

• What really took away from the unitary character of the constitution envisaged under the Cabinet Mission Plan was that the Provinces were to be left free to form groups with their own Executives and Legislatures, and each group was to be competent to determine the provincial subjects which it decided to take up under its control. The proposals, however, were in the nature of a recommendation, and could have taken a concrete shape only by agreement between the two major parties.

• The situation seemed to be hopeful for some time. The Muslim League agreed to elect candidates for the Constituent Assembly to frame a constitution for the Union of India. The position, however, soon became complicated on account of a statement issued by the British government on 6 September 1946 to the effect that in case the Constituent Assembly framed a constitution in which a large section of the Indian population had not been represented they would not force such a constitution upon any unwilling part of the country.

• The result was that when the Constituent Assembly met three days after the statement had been issued the Muslim League members refused to attend it. At the same time they raised the demand that since the Constituent Assembly no longer represented all sections of the Indian people it was to be dissolved.

• The Constituent Assembly of India proceeded to the task of framing a Constitution for the country without the Muslim League members. The British government made it clear in a statement on 20 February 1947 that they had decided to transfer power to the Indians by June 1948 and that, if a fully representative Constituent Assembly failed to work out an agreed constitution, the British government would have to decide to whom to hand over power on the due date whether as a whole to some form of Central Government for British India, or, in some areas to the existing provincial government in some other way, as seemed "most reasonable" to them and "in the best interests of the Indian people"

• The implication for 'Princely India' was clear : each Indian State was to be treated as sovereign. This strengthened the Muslim League in its resolve to refuse to join the Constituent Assembly and to continue to press its demand for another Constituent Assembly for 'Muslim India'.

• Lord Mountbatten worked out a detailed plan for the transfer of power to the Indian people

• The salient features of the Mountbatten plan were as follows • (1) Muslim-dominated areas may be separated to form a

Dominion In that case such a domination would be constituted by a partition of Bengal and the Punjab.

• (2) A referendum in North-west Frontier Province would decide whether it should join Pakistan or not.

• (3) Similarly the people of Sylhet, in Assam, were also to give their verdict in a referendum whether they were willing to join the Muslim area in Bengal.

• (4) A Boundary Commission was to define the boundaries of the Hindu and Muslim Provinces in the Punjab and Bengal (5) The British Parliament was to legislate an Act for the immediate transfer of Power. (6) The representatives of the Muslim-dominated areas could form a separate Constitution-making body or Constituent Assembly.

Indian Independence Act • The word 'independence" in the Indian Independence Act' emphasized

freedom from the control of the British Parliament and the Crown. However, virtually the provisions of the Mountbatten Plan were incorporated in the Indian Independence Act. 1947.

• According to the provision of the Act two Dominions-India and Pakistan were to emerge an independent countries from the date 15 August, 1947. The suzerainty of the British Crown on these two Dominions were to lapse on and from that date.

• The Indian Independence Act further provided that pending the adoption of a new Constitution both India and Pakistan were to be governed by the Constituent Assembly of the respective countries i short, the Indian Independence Act had transformed India from a dependency of the Crown to an independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

• The British Government introduced the Indian Inde-pendence Bill in Parliament on July 4, 1947 and the Indian Independence Act was enacted after a fortnight on July 18. The Act made no reference to any new Constitution for India.

• The Act enabled the representatives of India and Pakistan to frame their own Constitutions and to provide for the "exceedingly difficult period of transition". In another sense, the Act was a mere formal reflection of the promises made under the Mountbatten Plan.

• Under the Act:• Two Independent dominions (India and Pakistan) were to be set up

on 15 August, 1947.• Pakistan will comprise of Sindh, Baluchistan, N.W.F.P., West Punjab

and East Bengal.• The legislatures of each dominion shall have full power to make laws

for that dominion (legislative supremacy).• Pending the adoption of a new constitution for each dominion, the

existing Constituent Assembly would be Dominion Legislature, and both Dominion and every Province would be governed by the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935.

• Each Dominion was empowered to modify this Act, through its Governor-General up to March 31, 1948 and thereafter by its Constituent Assembly.

• The King's Power to veto laws or to reserve them for His Majesty's pleasure was given up and each new Governor-General was given the right to assent in His Majesty's name to any Bill passed by the Dominion Legislature of his country.

• Suzerainty and paramountcy of the British Crown over the Indian States was terminated through the Act with all treaties, agreements, etc., between the two to lapse on August 15.

• The existing arrangements between the States and the Government of India were to continue pending detailed negotiations between these states and the new Dominions.

• The office of the Secretary of State for India was abolished. The Secretary for Commonwealth Affairs was to take on his work.

• The words "Emperor of India" and "India Imperator" were to be dropped from the Royal-style and titles.

• Both the dominions had the right to go out of the British Commonwealth as and when they desire. Thus, the Act converted India from a dependency of the crown into two separate dominions. India was free from the control of the British Parliament and Whitehall. The Act according to Mr. Attlee was "a culminating point" in a long course of events- the Act of 1935, the Cripps Mission, etc. The Act was acclaimed as "the noblest and the greatest law ever enacted by the British Parliament."