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The Government of India Act, 1935 was based on the White Paper which was a result of the Third Round Table Conference,1932 and the Simon Commision of 1928. The constitution makers greatly relied on the Act of 1935 due to familiarity with its administrative provisions and because it was suited for the Indian conditions.
Features of Government of India Act that influenced the Indian Constitution:
1. The Act provided for the establishment of an All-India Federation consisting of the Provinces and the Princely States as units, though the envisaged federation never came into being. Similarly, the Indian Constitution also envisioned a Federal Polity.
2. It established the office of Governor, which exercised all the executive power and authority of the state. This directly influenced the office of Governor as provided by the Indian Constitution (Article 153).
3. Federal Scheme: The Act divided the powers between the Centre and the units into items of three lists, namely the Federal List, the Provincial List and the Concurrent List.
A) The Federal List for the Centre consisted of 59 items, the Provincial List for the provinces consisted of 54 items and the Concurrent List for both consisted of 36 items. The Indian Constitution also provides for Division of Powers under the Seventh Schedule.
B) The residuary powers were vested with the Governor-General. This centralising tendency was continued by the Indian Constitution as well.
4. Federal legislature: It provided for creation of two houses, i.e., the Council of States and the Federal Assembly. The Council of States was the upper house which was a permanent body with a tenure of three years. The Federal Assembly was the lower house with a tenure expanding up to five years. This is set up is similar to the Parliamentary set up provided by the Indian Constitution, Rajya Sabha as the Council of States and Lok Sabha as the House of the People.
5. The Act adopted Dyarchy at the Centre. However, it abolished Dyarchy in the Provinces and provided Provincial Autonomy.
6. Provincial Autonomy: The Act enabled the Provincial governments to be responsible only to the Provincial Legislatures.
7. Introduced bicameralism in 6 out of 11 Provinces. These six Provinces were Assam, Bengal, Bombay, Bihar, Madras and the United Province. The Indian Constitution also provides autonomy of states as the state governments are responsible to the State Legislatures.
8. Apart from the above specific provisions, makers of Indian Constitution also adopted administrative details from the Act of 1935.
Therefore, the Government of India Act, 1935 not only influenced the specific provisions of our constitution but also the overall polity and philosophy adopted by the constitution makers.
