November 26 was announced as the National Law Day or Indian Constitution Day under the Modi government with the motive of encouraging constitutional values among citizens. This day is observed to highlight the value of the Indian Constitution and the respective architect, Dr. BR Ambedkar. This declaration was made by the Prime Minister on 11th October 2015.
Another name by which Law day goes is ‘Samvidhan Divas’. India’s constitution is said to be one of the longest written constitutions in any of the sovereign countries existing in the world. It mainly aims in creating and maintaining awareness by enriching Fundamental Duties.
National Constitution Day Significance
IN 2015, it was officially marked the 125th anniversary of the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. On November 19, 2015, the Central government Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment publicly announced that from then on every year November 26 will be observed as the Constitution Day of India.
National Law Day Constituent Assembly
The very first session of the Constituent Assembly was held in the Constitution Hall on the 9th of December, 1946 and it was attended by around 207 members, out of which nine of them were women where the motive of setting up the panel was to draft the Constitution of India. It took around 11 months and 8 days to entirely draft the constitution.
It was later seen that it took around three years for the Constitution to be drafted for the independence of India and in this period, around eleven sessions were held that covered 165 days in accordance to the Lok Sabha website. Out of these 165 days, a total number of 114 days were taken so that the consideration of the contest of the Draft Constitution successfully takes place. Although there were 389 members in the assembly, after partition, Pakistan had its own Constituent Assembly thereby reducing the membership to 299.
Afterward, on December 13, Jawaharlal Nehru passed the ‘Objectives Resolution’ and it was then on 22nd January 1947, Preamble was adopted. Furthermore, in 1947, 14th of August evening, the Assembly met in the Constitution Hall thereby taking over and acting as the Legislative Assembly of Independent India.
Later in the same month on 29th August, a Drafting Committee was set by the Constituent Assembly where one of its 17 committees under the chairmanship of BR Ambedkar was asked to get the Draft Constitution for India ready. There were around 7,635 amendments tabled, out of which around 2,473 amendments were approved and disposed of by the committee. Thus, after 2 years on 26th November 1949 on the last day of the Assembly’s session, the Constitution of India was adopted. Later on, it finally came to effect on 24th January 1950 only after all the 283 members approved by signing it.
Thus, the Constitution of India was neither typeset nor printed; rather it was handwritten and calligraphic in both the language of Hindi and English. Moreover, 26 November was finally marked as an important date in the whole history of India’s Constitution after which it finally came into effect on 26th January 1950.