Vol. 13 · pages 126–130

REGISTERED No. L. 8181 EXTRAORDINARY PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY NEW DELHI, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1948 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF INDIA. New Delhi, the 26th February, 1948. No. CA/99/Cons./47.—The Draft Constitution of India, as settled by the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, together with a letter from the Chairman of the Committee to the President of the Constituent Assembly, is hereby published for general information. The Draft will be taken into consideration at the next session of the Constituent Assembly:— New Delhi, 21st February, 1948. To The Hon’ble The PRESIDENT of the Constituent Assembly of India, New Delhi. Dear Sir, Introductory.—On behalf of the Drafting Committee appointed by the resolution of the Constituent Assembly of August 29, 1947, I submit herewith the Draft of the new Constitution of India as settled by the Committee. Although I have been authorized to sign the Draft on behalf of the members of the Committee, I should make it clear that not all the members were present at all the meetings of the Committee. But at every meeting at which any decision was taken the necessary quorum was present and the decisions were either unanimous or by a majority of those present. 127

In preparing the Draft the Drafting Committee was of course expected to follow the decisions taken by the Constituent Assembly or by the various Com- mittees appointed by the Constituent Assembly. This the Drafting Committee has endeavoured to do as far as possible. There were however some matters in respect of which the Drafting Committee felt it necessary to suggest certain changes. All such changes have been indicated in the Draft by underlining or side-lining the relevant portions. Care has also been taken by the Drafting Committee to insert a footnote explaining the reasons for every such change. I however think that, having regard to the importance of the matter, I should draw your attention and the attention of the Constituent Assembly to the most important of these changes. 2. Preamble.—The Objectives Resolution adopted by the Constituent Assembly in January, 1947, declares that India is to be a Sovereign Indepen- dent Republic. The Drafting Committee has adopted the phrase Sovereign Democratic Republic, because independence is usually implied in the word ”Sovereign”, so that there is hardly anything to be gained by adding the word “Independent”, The question of the relationship between this Democratic Republic and the British Commonwealth of Nations remains to be decided subsequently. The Committee has added a clause about frater- nity in the preamble, although it does not occur in the Objectives Resolution. The Committee felt that the need for fraternal concord and goodwill in India was never greater than now and that this particular aim of the new Constitution should be emphasised by special mention in the preamble. In other respects the Committee has tried to embody in the preamble the spirit and, as far as possible, the language of the Objectives Resolution. Article 1 3. Description of India.—In article 1 of the Draft, India has been described as a Union of States. For uniformity the Committee has thought it desirable to describe the Units of the Union in the new Constitution as States, whether they are known at 128 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY, FEB. 26,1948 96 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

present as Governors’ Provinces, or Chief Commis- sioners’ Provinces or Indian States. Some difference between the Units there will undoubtedly remain even in the new Constitution; and in order to mark this difference, the Committee has divided the States into three classes: those enumerated in Part I of the First Schedule, those enumerated in Part II, and those enumerated in Part III. These correspond respectively to the existing Governors’ Provinces, Chief Commissioners’ Provinces and Indian States. It will be noticed that the Committee has used the term Union instead of Federation. Nothing much turns on the name, but the Committee has pre- ferred to follow the language of the preamble to the British North America Act, 1867, and considered that there are advantages in describing India as a Union although its Constitution may be federal in structure. Articles 5 & 6 4. Citizenship.—The Committee has given anxious and prolonged consideration to the question of citizenship of the Union. The Committee has thought it necessary that, in order to be a citizen of the Union at its inception, a person must have some kind of territorial connection with the Union whether by birth, or descent, or domicile. The Committee doubts whether it will be wise to admit as citizens those who, without any such connection with the territory of India, may be prepared to swear allegi- ance to the Union; for if other States were to copy such a provision, we might have within the Union a large number of persons who, though born and permanently resident therein, would owe allegiance to a foreign State. The Committee has, however, kept in view the requirements of the large number of displaced persons who have had to migrate to India within recent months, and has provided for them a specially easy mode of acquiring domicile and, thereby citizenship. What they have to do (assum- ing that they or either of their parents or any of their grand-parents were born in India or Pakistan) is— (a) to declare before a District Magistrate in India that they desire to acquire a domi- cile in India, and THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY, FEB. 26,1948 129 97THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION