National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution
Also called: NCRWC, Venkatachaliah Commission · Topic: Amendment of the Constitution and the Basic Structure · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 9 "Constitution as a Living Document"
Meaning
The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was set up on 22 February 2000 to study how the Constitution had worked in practice. Its chair was former Chief Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah. It gave its report on 31 March 2002 with about 249 recommendations. Opposition parties boycotted it, fearing it would rewrite the Constitution. However, it stayed within the basic structure, meaning the core features that cannot be changed.
Example
Some of its ideas were later adopted. The best-known is the cap on the size of the Council of Ministers at 15%, which the 91st Amendment (2003) brought in along with stricter anti-defection rules.
Don't confuse with
- Constituent Assembly: the Constituent Assembly wrote the Constitution. The NCRWC could only review it and recommend changes. Any change still had to go through Parliament under Article 368.