Vol. 13 · pages 1121–1125

1088 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 4. While the Vice-president or any other person is discharging the functions of, or is acting as President, or any person is discharging the functions of the Governor, he shall be entitled to the same emoluments, allowances and privileges as the President or the Governor whose functions he discharges or for whom he acts, as the case may be.” PART II “That in the heading in Part II, after the word and figure ‘Part I’ the words and figures ‘or Part III’ be inserted.” “That for paragraph 7, the following paragraph be substituted :— ‘7. There shall be paid to the ministers for any State for the time being specified in Part I or Part III of the First Schedule such salaries and allowances as were payable to such ministers for the corresponding Province or the corresponding Indian State, as the case may be, immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.” PART III “That in paragraph 8, for the words ‘respectively to the Deputy President of the Legislative Assembly and to the Deputy President of the Council of State immediately before the fifteenth day of August 1947’ the words ‘to the Deputy Speaker of the Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India immediately before such commencement’ be substituted.” PART IV “That for Part IV of the Second Schedule, the following be substituted :— PART IV Provisions as to the Judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts of States in Part I of the First Schedule 10. (1) There shall be paid to the judges of the Supreme Court, in respect of time spent on actual service, salary at the following rates per mensem, that is to say :— The Chief Justice—5,000 rupees : Any other judge—4,000 rupees : Provided that if a Judge of the Supreme Court at the time of his appointment is in receipt of a pension (other than a disability or wound pension) in respect of any previous service under the Government of India or of its predecessor, Governments or under the Government of a State or any of its predecessor Governments, his salary in respect of service in the Supreme Court shall be reduced by the amount of that pension. (2) Every judge of the Supreme Court shall be entitled without payment of rent to the use of an official residence. (3) Nothing in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph shall apply to a judge who was appointed as a judge of the Federal Court before the thirty-first day of October, 1948, and has become on the date of the commencement of this Constitution a judge of the Supreme Court under clause (1) of article 308 of this Constitution, and every such judge shall in addition to the salary specified in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph be entitled to receive as special pay an amount equivalent to the difference between the salary so specified and the salary which was payable to him as a judge of the Federal Court immediately before such commencement.

1089DRAFT CONSTITUTION (4) Every judge of the Supreme Court shall receive such reasonable allowances to re-imburse him for expenses incurred in travelling on duty within the territory of India and shall be afforded such reasonable facilities in connection with travelling as the President may from time to time prescribe. (5) The rights in respect of leave of absence (including leave allowances) and pension of the judges of the Supreme Court shall be governed by the provisions which, immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, were applicable to the judges of the Federal Court. 11.(1) There shall be paid to the judges of the High Court of each State for the time being specified in Part I of the First Schedule, in respect of time spent on actual service, salary at the following rates per mensem, that is to say :— The Chief Justice—4,000 rupees Any other judge—3,500 rupees (2) Every person who was appointed permanently as a judge of a High Court in any Province before the thirty-first day of October, 1948, and has on the date of the commencement of this Constitution become a judge of the High Court in the corresponding State under clause (1) of article 310 of this Constitution, and was immediately before such commencement drawing a salary at a rate higher than that specified in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph, shall be entitled to receive as special pay in amount equivalent to the difference between the salary so specified and the salary which was payable to him as a judge of the High Court immediately before such commencement. (3) Every such judge shall receive such reasonable allowances to re-imburse him for expenses incurred in travelling on duty within the territory of India and shall be afforded such reasonable facilities in connection with travelling as the President may from time to time prescribe. (4) The rights in respect of leave of absence (including leave allowances) and pension of the judges of any such High Court shall be governed by the provisions which, immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, were applicable to the judges of the High Court of the corresponding Province. 12. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires. (a) the expresion “Chief Justice” includes an acting Chief Justice, and a “Judge” includes an ad hoc judge. (b) “actual service” includes— (i) time spent by a judge on duty as a judge or in the performance of such other functions as he may at the request of the President undertake to discharge; (ii) vacations, excluding any time during which the judge is absent on leave; and (iii) joining time on transfer from a High Court to the Supreme Court or from one High Court to another.”

1090 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES PART V “That in the heading of Part V, for the word ‘Auditor-General’ the words ‘Comptroller and Auditor-General’ be substituted. ‘That for paragraph 14, the following paragraph be substituted :— ‘14. (1) There shall be paid to the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India a salary at the rate of four thousand rupees per mensem. (2) The person who was holding office immediately before the commencement of this Constitution as Auditor-General of India and has become on the date of such commencement the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India under article 310A of this Constitution shall in addition to the salary specified in subparagraph (1) of this paragraph be entitled to receive as special pay an amount equivalent to the difference between the salary so specified and the salary which was payable to him as AuditorGeneral of India immediately before such commencement.” “That in paragraph 15, for the word ‘Auditor-General’ in the first place where it occurs, the words ‘Comprtoller and Auditor-General’ be substituted.” With your permission, I will explain the provisions tomorrow. Mr. President : The House stands adjourned till 10 o’clock tomorrow morning. The Assembly then adjourned till Ten of the Clock on Wednesday, the 12th October 1949. WEDNESDAY, THE 12 TH OCTOBER 1949 The Constituent Assembly of India met in the Constitution Hall, New Delhi, at Ten of the Clock (Wednesday, the 12th October 1949), Mr. President (the Honourable Dr. Rajendra Prasad) in the Chair. SECOND S CHEDULE—(contd.) *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Mr. President, Sir, I would like to say a few words in explanation of the provisions contained in the Second Schedule, and I would like to begin with that part which deals with the salary of judges. First of all, with regard to the Supreme Court, it will be seen that the salaries of the judges of the Supreme Court on the commencement of the Constitution will be for the Chief Justice Rs. 5,000 per month plus a free house, and the salary for a puisne judge will be Rs. 4,000 per month plus a free house. With regard to the Supreme Court, the position is this, that *CAD, Vol. X, 12th October 1949, pp. 119-122.

1091DRAFT CONSTITUTION according to the Constitution, any Federal Court judge who chooses to become a judge of the Supreme Court will be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court. If any judge of the Federal Court therefore chooses to become a judge of the Supreme Court, the question that arises is this : whether he should get the standard salary which has been fixed under the Constitution for the judges of the Supreme Court or whether any provision Should be made for allowing him to continue to draw the salary which he now gets as a judge of the Federal Court. The decision of the Drafting Committee has been that while the normal salaries of the Supreme Court judges should be as stated in the Second Schedule, provision ought to be made to enable the Federal Court Judges to draw the salary which they are drawing at present in case they choose to become judges of the Supreme Court. For this purpose, the judges of the Federal Court are divided into two categories—those who are appointed as permanent judges before the 31st October 1948 and those who are appointed after 31st October 1948. In the case of the first category, i.e., those who are appointed before the 31st October 1948, they will get a personal pay which would be equivalent to the difference between the salary which has been fixed by the Second Schedule and the salary that was payable to such a judge immediately before the commencement of the Constitution. With regard to those who are appointed after the 31st October 1948, they will get at the rates fixed in the Second Schedule, so that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will get Rs. 2,000 more than the salary fixed for the Chief justice under the Constitution, while the puisne judges of the Federal Court, if they go to the Supreme Court, will be getting Rs. 1,500 in excess of the normal salary which is fixed for the puisne judge of the Supreme Court. Coming to the High Court, the normal salary fixed under the Constitution for the Chief Justice is Rs. 4,000 and the normal salary for the puisne judges is Rs. 3,500. Here again, we have got a provision in the Constitution that any judge of a High Court, if he wishes to be appointed to the High Court, under the Constitution, the President is bound to appoint him and consequently the same problem which arises under the Supreme Court also arises in the case of the High Court, because those judges who are now existing judges draw, in some cases, a higher salary than the salary that is fixed in the Second Schedule. In order, therefore, to remove any possible grievance, it has also been decided to follow the same procedure as has been followed in the case of the Federal Court, namely, to divide the judges into two categories those appointed before

1092 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the 31st October 1948 and those appointed thereafter. Thus, those in category one will get an additional pay as personal pay which will be equivalent to the difference between the salary fixed by the Constitution and the salary which they are drawing, and those who are in category two will get the salary as fixed by the Constitution. Perhaps, it might be necessary to explain why we have adopted the 31st October 1948 as the dividing line. The answer is that the Government of India had notified to the various High Courts and the Federal Court that any judge who is appointed before the 31st October 1948 will continue to get the salaries which he was getting now but that the same assurance could not be given with respect to judges appointed after the 31st October 1948. It is in order to guarantee this assurance, so to say, that this dividing line has been introduced. I would like to say a word or two with regard to the scale of salary fixed in Schedule II and the scale of salary obtaining in other countries, for instance, in the United States the Chief Justice gets Rs. 7,084 per month while the puisne judges get Rs. 6,958. In Canada the Chief Justice gets Rs. 4,584 and the puisne judges get Rs. 3,662. In Australia the Chief Justice of the High Court gets Rs. 3,750 and the puisne judge gets Rs. 3,333. And in South Africa the Chief Justice gets Rs. 3,892 and the puisne judges get Rs. 3,611. Anyone who compares the standard salary that we have fixed in Schedule II with the figures which I have given I think, will realise that our salaries if at all, compare much better with the salaries that are fixed for similar functionaries in other countries except the U.S.A. In fixing these salaries we have been as fair as we could be. For instance, it would have been perfectly open for the Drafting Committee to say, following the rule that those who have been appointed before the 31st October 1948, if their salary is in excess of what is the normal salary fixed by the Constitution, we could have also made a provision that the judges of the High Court of Nagpur shall get less than the normal salary, because their salary is less than the normal salary as at present existing. But we do not propose to perpetuate any such grievance and therefore we have not introduced a countervailing provision which in strict justice to the case, the Drafting Committee would have been justified in doing. I therefore submit that so far as the salary of the judiciary is concerned there can hardly be any ground for complaint. I come to the question of the president. The president of the Union is obviously a functionary who would replace the present Governor-General