Constituent Assembly of India

The Constituent Assembly of India was the legislature of the Dominion of India from its independence in August 1947 until 1950, when India became a republic. Best known for its creation of the Indian constitution, its members were mostly elected from the provinces of British India—with a third being nominated by princely states.

First formed in December 1946 as an advisory body aimed at drafting a constitution for a united and independent India eighteen months before the original June 1948 deadline for independence, it was given sovereign powers to legislate for the Dominion of India (excluding princely states that refused to accede to the Dominion) following partition and independence on 15 August 1947 and the abolition of the Imperial Legislative Council under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act 1947.

Its members continued as part of the provisional unicameral Parliament of India from the adoption of the Indian constitution in 1950 until the first bicameral Parliament convened following elections in May 1952.