Old Parliament House, New Delhi
former seat of the Parliament of India

The Old Parliament House, officially known as the Samvidhan Sadan (Constitution House) and formerly known as the Council House, was the seat of the Parliament of India between 26 January 1950 and 18 September 2023. It housed the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha (the lower and upper houses) respectively in India's bicameral parliament for nearly 73 years. Earlier it had served as the seat of the Imperial Legislative Council between 18 January 1927 and 15 August 1947, and the Constituent Assembly of India between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950.
The building was designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and was constructed between 1921 and 1927. It was opened in January 1927 as the seat of the Imperial Legislative Council. Following the Indian Independence in 1947, it was taken over by the Constituent Assembly of India, and then became the seat of the Indian Parliament on 26 January 1950 with India becoming a republic following the adoption of the Indian Constitution.
A New Parliament House, built adjacent to this building was inaugurated on 28 May 2023, and replaced the old Parliament building.
Early history
Background
During the coronation of George V as the Emperor of India on 12 December 1911, he announced the transfer of the seat of the colonial government from Calcutta to Delhi. In 1919, the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms transformed the Imperial Legislative Council into a bicameral structure with two houses, those being the Central Legislative Assembly and Council of State. The reforms necessitated the construction of the building to accommodate the houses.
“Old Parliament House, New Delhi” enters the record as former seat of the Parliament of India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Parliament, House and Delhi can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Old Parliament House, New Delhi” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Parliament, House and Delhi provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15275136. Authority coordinates are 28.617, 77.208. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 2023, 1927 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old Parliament House, New Delhi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.