The Indian Council Act, 1909 ( Morley -Minto Reforms) in English

The Indian Council Act, 1909
The Indian Council Act, 1909 is also popularly known as “Morley-Minto Reforms”.
Lord Morley was the then Secretary of State for India and Lord Minto was the then Viceroy of India.
This Act considerably increased the size of the legislative councils, both at the Central and Provincial Level.
The number of members in the Central Legislative Council was raised from 16 to 60 members. However, the number of members in the provincial legislative councils was not uniform.
This Act retained the majority of official members in the Central Legislative Council, whereas it allowed the majority of non-official members in the Provincial Legislative Councils.
It allowed the non-officials members as well to ask supplementary questions, move resolutions on the budget and so on.
It provided (for the first time) for the association of Indian with the executive councils of viceroy and Governors.
Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the First Indian who joined the Viceroy’s executive council. He was appointed as the Law Member.
It introduced a system of communal representation from Muslims by accepting the concept of “Separate Electorate”.
Under this Separate Electorate, the Muslims members were to be selected only by the Muslim Voters.
Thus this Act had made the communalism legalized and Lord Minto came to be known as the “Father of Communal Electorate”.
This Act also provided for the separate representation of presidency corporations, chamber of commerce, universities and Zamindars.