National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution

National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was a high‑level, government‑appointed body set up on 15 December 1988 to undertake a systematic appraisal of India’s constitutional architecture. Chaired by former Supreme Court Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, the commission was tasked with probing the efficacy of democratic institutions, federal relations, and the judiciary, and with proposing reforms that could “strengthen the democratic fabric of the Union.” Its work culminated in a voluminous report submitted in August 1990, which remains a reference point for contemporary constitutional debates. ## Origins and Mandate The NCRWC emerged against a backdrop of political turbulence: the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the subsequent rise of coalition politics, and growing public disquiet over electoral malpractices. In his 1988 address to the Cabinet, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi announced the commission as part of a “new constitutional agenda” aimed at pre‑empting crises that had plagued the first four decades of the Republic. The commission’s terms of reference, outlined in Gazette Notification No. S.O. 1988/247‑E, explicitly covered the electoral system, the role of the President, the anti‑defection law (Tenth Schedule), the structure of the Union‑State fiscal framework, and the appointment and accountability of judges. The commission was also mandated to consult a broad spectrum of stakeholders, ranging from state legislators and civil‑society groups to senior jurists and academic experts. Its charter required a “comprehensive review of the working of the Constitution” rather than a piecemeal amendment, reflecting the government’s desire for a holistic reform package. The final report, titled Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, comprised 250 recommendations spread across 12 chapters. ## Composition and Working Methodology The NCRWC consisted of thirteen members, including Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer (Chairman), former Chief Justice of India Justice R. S. Pathak, former Union Minister of Law Arun Jaitley, and noted constitutional scholar Prof. M. N. Rao. The commission’s secretariat was housed within the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, and it was allocated a budget of ₹ 2.5 crore for the two‑year tenure. Members met fortnightly, and sub‑committees were formed to handle specific domains such as electoral reforms, federal finance, and judicial administration. To gather evidence, the commission conducted 120 public hearings across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad, and received written submissions from over 1,500 individuals and organisations. It also commissioned comparative studies of parliamentary democracies in Canada, Germany, and Japan, drawing on data from the Inter‑Parliamentary Union and the World Bank. The draft report was circulated to the President, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for comment before the final version was tabled in Parliament. ## Major Recommendations (Key Provisions) Among the most consequential proposals was the call to replace the first‑past‑the‑post (FPTP) system for Lok Sabha elections with a mixed‑member proportional representation model, intended to curb the “winner‑takes‑all” distortion that the commission argued amplified regional polarisation. The commission also recommended reducing the size of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 400 members to improve legislative efficiency, and introducing a “single transferable vote” for Rajya Sabha elections to enhance intra‑party democracy. In the realm of executive accountability, the commission urged the direct election of the President by a two‑step electoral college, thereby granting the office a democratic mandate comparable to that of the Prime Minister. It advocated for a comprehensive overhaul of the anti‑defection law, suggesting that a “cooling‑off period” of six months be introduced before a legislator could switch parties without forfeiting his seat. Judicial reforms featured prominently: the commission proposed the establishment of a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) to replace the collegium system, a recommendation later echoed in the 2014 NJAC Bill (though struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015). It also called for a statutory “Right to Information” provision, a concept that materialised as the Right to Information Act of 2005. Fiscal federalism was addressed through a proposal to grant states a larger share of central taxes—specifically, raising the de‑volution ratio from 32 percent to 45 percent of the Union budget. ## Impact and Implementation The NCRWC’s report influenced several constitutional amendments in the 1990s. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1992) on Panchayati Raj and urban local bodies incorporated