HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION

❖ The Company rules: From 1773 to 1858

❖ The Crown rules: From 1858 to 1947

The Company Rules

➢ Regulating Act of 1773
➢ Pitts India Act of 1784
➢ Charter Act of 1813
➢ Charter Act of 1833
➢ Charter Act of 1853
The Crown Rules
➢ Government of India Act of 1858
➢ The Indian Council Act of 1861
➢ The Indian Council Act of 1892
➢ The Government of India Act of 1909
➢ The Government of India Act of 1919
➢ The Government of India Act of 1935
➢ The Indian Independence Act of 1947

❖ The Company Rules

➢ Regulating Act of 1773
✓ It was the first step taken by the British Government to
control and regulate the affairs of the East India company
in India.
✓ It designated the Governor of Bengal as the ‘Governor
General of Bengal’ and created an Executive Council of
four members to assist the Governor General.
✓ Lord Warren Hastings was appointed as the first such
Governor General.
✓ It made a four members Governor General’s Executive
Council- Lt. Gen. John Clavering, George Monson, Richard
Barwell and Philip Francis.
P a g e 1 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
✓ It made the Governors of Bombay and Madras
presidencies subordinate to the Governor General of
Bengal.
✓ It recognised, for the first time, the political and
administrative functions of the Company.
✓ It provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court at
Calcutta (1774) comprising one Chief justice and three
other judges.
✓ Sir Elijah Imphey was appointed as the first Chief Justice
of such Supreme Court.

➢ Pitts’s India Act of 1784

✓ This Act was enacted from 13th August 1784.
✓ It distinguished between the Commercial and Political
functions of the company.
✓ The company’s territories in India were for the first time
called the ‘British Possessions in India’.
✓ The British Government was given the supreme control
over company’s affairs and its administration in India.
✓ It created a six members Board of Control for regulate the
East India Company in India- a) British Finance Minister;
b) Secretary of State and c) Four member of Privy
Council.
✓ It reduced the members of Governor General’s Executive
Council from 4 to 3.
✓ It made the Governor General appointed by the
King/Queen and the King/Queen can discharge him.
✓ The Governor General selected by the Company.
✓ Lord Cornwallis appointed as the second Governor of
Bengal by passing a supplementary Act of 1786.
✓ It gave the power to the Governor General to reject the
Executive Council’s decisions.
P a g e 2 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION

➢ Charter Act of 1813

✓ It made the Company’s commercial monopoly was ended,
except for the Tea and Opium trade and the trade with
China.
✓ It allotted Rupees One Lakh to Christian missionaries in
India to propagate English and preach their religion.

➢ Charter Act of 1833

✓ This Act was enacted from 28th August 1833.
✓ It was the final step towards centralisation in British India.
✓ It made the Governor General of Bengal as the Governor
General of India and vested in him all Civil and Military
powers.
✓ Lord William Bentick was appointed as the first such
Governor General of India.
✓ Governor General of India was called ‘Government of
India’ and its Executive Council called as ‘India Council’.
✓ Lord Macaulay was appointed as Law member of India
Council.
✓ It gave the power to make law only on the Governor
General’s Executive Council/India Council.
✓ It ended the activities of the East India Company as a
commercial body, which become a purely administrative
body.
✓ It attempted to introduce a system of open competition
for selection of Civil Servants. However, this provision was
negated after opposition from the Court of Directors.
✓ Law Commission of India was established in 1834.

P a g e 3 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION

➢ Charter Act of 1853

✓ It separated, for the first time, the Legislative and
Executive functions of the Governor General’s Council.
✓ It established a separate Governor General’s Legislative
Council which came to be known as the Indian/Central
Legislative Council. (Like Parliament).
✓ It introduced an open competition system of selection
and recruitment of Civil Servants, and stated that the
Indians should not be debarred from holding any place,
office and employment under the Company.
✓ It established Macaulay Committee (The committee on
the Indian Civil Service) in 1854.
✓ It introduced, for the first time, local representation in
Indian/Central Legislative Council.
✓ It separated the Legislative from the Administrative.

❖ Crown Rules
➢ Government of India Act of 1858
✓ This act came into force from 1st November 1858.
✓ The act known as the Act for the Good Government of
India and transferred the powers of Govt., territories and
revenues to the British Crown from East India Company.
✓ It changed the designation of the Governor General of
India to that of Viceroy of India.
✓ Lord Canning was appointed as the first such Viceroy of
India, and he was the direct representative of the British
Crown in India.
✓ It created a new office, Secretary of State for India,
vested with complete authority and control over Indian
administration. The secretary of state was a member of

P a g e 4 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
the British cabinet and was responsible ultimately to the
British Parliament.
✓ Lord Stanley was appointed as the first such Secretary.
✓ It established a 15-member Council of India to assist the
secretary of state for India.

➢ Indian Councils Act of 1861

✓ Lord Canning, the then Viceroy, nominated three Indians
to his Legislative Council- The Maharaja of Benaras, The
Maharaja of Patiala and Sir Dinkar Rao.
✓ It provided for the establishment of new Legislative
Councils for Bengal, North-Western Frontier Province
(NWFP) and Punjab, which were establish in 1862, 1866
and 1897 respectively.
✓ It empowered the Viceroy to issue ordinances, without
the concurrence of the legislative council, during an
emergency. The life of such an ordinance was six months.

➢ Indian Councils Act of 1892

✓ The act made a limited and indirect provision for the use
of election in filling up some of the non-official seats both
in the Central and provincial legislative councils. The word
“election” was, however, not used in the act. The process
was described as nomination made on the
recommendation of certain bodies.
✓ It increased the functions of legislative councils and gave
them the power of discussing the budget and addressing
questions to the executive.

P a g e 5 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION

➢ Government of India Act of 1909

✓ This Act is also known as Morley-Minto Reforms (Lord
Morley was the then Secretary of State for India and Lord
Minto was the then Viceroy of India).
✓ It increased the size of the legislative councils, both
Central and provincial. The number of members in the
Central Legislative Council was raised from 16 to 60.
✓ It introduced a system of communal representation for
Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate
electorate’. Under this, the Muslim members were to be
elected only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘legalised
communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be known as the
Father of Communal Electorate.
✓ It also provided for the separate representation of
presidency corporations, chambers of commerce,
universities and zamindars.
✓ It provided (for the first time) for the association of
Indians with the executive Councils of the Viceroy and
Governors.
✓ Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the first Indian to join the
Viceroy’s Executive Council (as Law member).

➢ Government of India Act of 1919

✓ This Act is also known as Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
(Montagu was the Secretary of State for India and Lord
Chelmsford was the Viceroy of India). The Act came into
force in 1921.
✓ It demarcating and separating the central and provincial
subjects. The central and provincial legislatures were
authorised to make laws on their respective list of
subjects.

P a g e 6 | 10
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
✓ It divided the provincial subjects into two parts-
Transferred and Reserved. The Transferred subjects were
to administered by the governor with the aid of ministers
responsible to the Legislative Council. The Reserved
subjects were to be administered by the Governor and his
Executive Council without being responsible to the
Legislative Council. This dual scheme of governance was
known as ‘dyarchy’.
✓ It introduced, for the first time, Bicameralism and direct
elections in the country. Thus, the Indian Legislative
Council was replaced by a Bicameral Legislature
consisting of an Upper House (Council of State) and a
Lower House (Legislative Assembly).
✓ It extended the principle of communal representation by
providing separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian
Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.
✓ It required that the three of the six members of the
Viceroy’s Executive Council (other than the commander-
in-chief) were to be Indian.
✓ It provided for the establishment of a Public Service
Commission. Hence, a Central Public Service Commission
was set up in 1926 for recruiting civil servants.
✓ It separated, for the first time, provincial budgets from
the Central budget and authorised the provincial
legislatures to enact their budgets.

Simon Commission- 1927

In November 1927, the British Government announced the
appointment a seven-member statutory commission under the
chairmanship of Sir John Simon to report on the condition of India under
its new Constitution. All the members of the of the commission were

P a g e 7 | 10
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
British and hence, all the parties boycotted the commission. The
commission submitted its report in 1930 and recommended the abolition
of dyarchy, extension of responsible government in the provinces,
establishment of a federation of British Inia and Princely states,
continuation of communal electorate and so on.

➢ Government of India Act of 1935

✓ The Act marked as a completely responsible Federal
Government in India.
✓ It provided for the establishment of an All-India
Federation consisting of provinces and princely states as
units.
✓ The Act divided the powers between the Central and
Units in terms of three lists – Federal List (for Centre, with
59 items); Provincial List (for provinces, with 54 items)
and the Concurrent List (for both, with 36 items).
Residuary powers were given to the Viceroy.
✓ It abolished dyarchy in the provinces and introduced
‘provincial autonomy’ in its place. The Act introduced
responsible governments in provinces, that is the
governor was required to act with the advice of ministers
responsible to the provincial legislature.
✓ It introduced bicameralism in six out of eleven provinces.
Thus, the legislatures of Bengal, Bombay, Madras, Bihar,
Assam and the United Provinces were made bicameral
consisting of a Legislative Council (upper house and a
Legislative Assembly (lower house).
✓ It extended the principle of communal representation by
providing separate electorates for depressed classes
(scheduled castes), women and labour (workers).

P a g e 8 | 10
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
✓ Its establishment of a Federal Public Service Commission,
a Provincial Public service Commission and Joint Public
Service Commission for two or more provinces.
✓ It provided for the establishment of a Reserve Bank of
India to control the currency and credit of the country.
✓ It provided for the establishment of a Federal Court,
which was set up in 1937.

➢ Indian Independence Act of 1947

• On 20th February 1947, the British Prime Minister Clement
Atlee declared that the British rule in India would end by
June 30, 1948; after which the power would be
transferred to responsible Indian hands. On 3rd June 1947,
Lord Mountbatten, the viceroy of India, put forth the
partition plan, known as the Mountbatten Plan.
✓ It ended the British rule in India and declared India as an
independent and sovereign state from August 15, 1947.
✓ It provided for the partition of India and creation of two
independent dominions of India and Pakistan.
✓ 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.
✓ It empowered the Constituent Assemblies of the two
dominions to frame and adopt any constitution for their
respective nations and to repeal any act of the British
Parliament.
✓ It abolished the office of the secretary of state for India.
✓ It proclaimed the lapse of British paramountcy over the
Indian princely states and treaty relations with trial areas
from August 15, 1947.

P a g e 9 | 10
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN CONSTITUTION
✓ It granted freedom to the Indian princely states either to
join the Dominion of India or Dominion of Pakistan or to
remain independent.
✓ It designated the Governor general of India and the
provincial Governors as constitutional heads of the states.

At the stroke of midnight of 14-15 August, 1947, the British rule came
to an end and power was transferred to the two new independent
Dominions of India and Pakistan. Lord Mountbatten became the first
Governor General of the new Dominion of India. He swore in Jawaharlal
Nehru as the first prime minister of independent India. The Constituent
Assembly of India formed in 1946 became the Parliament of the Indian
Dominion.

P a g e 10 | 10