NATIONAL LAW DAY – November 26

November 26 is celebrated as National Law Day or Constitution Day to acknowledge the efforts of the framers of the Constitution of India. The Constituent Assembly of India was founded on 9th December 1946 to write the Constitution of India. The drafting committee was chaired by Dr. B R Ambedkar, who was the Law Minister then. The Constituent Assembly held 11 sessions and took a period of 2 years, 11 months and 18 days before it signed two copies of the document one in Hindi by the name of “Bhartiya Samvidhan” and another in English “The Constitution of India”. The Constituent Assembly of India adopted the Constitution of India on 26 November 1949 (the day which we celebrate as National Law Day or Constitutional Day) and it came into effect on 26 January 1950 (the day which we celebrate as Republic Day). The Constitution Day is also known as Samvidhan Diwas.
Interesting trivia about the Indian Constitution:

• It is the longest written constitution in the world.
• The original Constitution of India was handwritten by Prem Behari Narain Raizada with each page beautifully decorated by artists from Shantiniketan.
• It is inspired from the constitutions of various countries and is often referred to as the bag of offerings.
• Dr B R Ambedkar is known as the Father of Indian Constitution, as he was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee
• The significance of 26th January for the enforcement of the Constitution is that it was the anniversary of “Poorna Swaraj Day” (26th January 1930); the day Indian congress seeded the fight for complete Independence and hoisted the Indian national flag for the first time.
• There were 15 women among the 284 members of the Constituent assembly. Each member signed both the English and the Hindi versions.
• Indian Constitution is known as one of the best Constitutions in the world; because even after 70 years, there have been only 103 amendments.
• There were originally 395 articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules. Currently, there are 448 articles, 25 parts, 12 schedules and 5 appendices.