Vol. 13 · pages 366–370

comma is necessary here, a semi-colon is necessary there, or article ‘a’ is proper here and article ‘the’ would be proper there and so on. But if my friend chooses to arrogate to himself the authority of a perfect grammarian so far as English is concerned, I would like to draw his attention to the Australian Constitution from which we have borrowed these words and the definite article ‘the’ is used there. So I take shelter or refuge under the Australian Constitution which, I suppose, we may take it, was drafted by men who were good draftsmen and who knew the English language and whom we cannot hold guilty of having committed an error in the language. Mr. Vice-President : I put the amendment to vote. The amendment was negatived. Mr. Vice-President : Amenement No. 119, Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Sir, I beg to move : “That in sub-clause (c) of clause (3) of Article 1, after the words ‘as may’ the word “hereafter” be inserted. Sir, I have moved this amendment after, I believe, taking great risks of having to displease the Honourable Chairman of the Drafting Committee. But I have to submit most respectfully that things which occur to Members should be placed before the House and the opinion of the House should be taken. If 1 have offended any member by moving....... Mr. Vice-President : There is no question to offending any one. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Sir, I beg to submit that the context indicates the word “hereafter” that is. States which may hereafter be acquired. So the word “hereafter” would be appropriate and I beg the House to consider insertion of this word. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I say it is quite unnecessary, and I oppose it. Mr. Vice-President : I put the amendment to vole. The amendment was negatived. [The House was adjourned till 17th November 1948] ***** *Mr. Vice-President : (Dr. H. C. Mookherjee) : We shall now go on with the amendments. Amendment No. 126—Prof. Shah. Prof. K. T. Shah (Bihar : General) : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, I beg to move : “That at the end of sub-clause (c) of clause (3) of article 1. the following he added : ‘or as may agree to join or accede to of merge with the Union’.” [This was followed by speech of Prof. Shah.] ***** *CAD. (Official Report), Vol. VII, 17th November 1948. p. 425. 333DRAFT CONSTITUTION

*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Sir, I oppose the amendment. The motion was negatived. ***** Prof. K. T. Shah : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, this amendment which stands in my name is as follows : “That the following proviso be added to article 1 : ‘Provided that within a period not exceeding ten years of the date when this Constitution comes into operation, the distinction or difference embodied in the several Schedules to this Constitution and in the various articles that follow shall he abolished, and the member States of the Union of India shall be organised on a uniform basis of groups of village Panchayats co-operatively organised inter se. and functioning as democratic ‘ units within the Union’.” [This was followed by discussion.] ***** †The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I oppose the amendment. Mr. Vice-President : I will now put the amendment to vote. [The amendment (of Prof. Shah) was negatived.] ***** ‡Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad (West Bengal : Muslim) : Sir, I move : “That at the beginning of the heading above article I, the word and Roman figure ‘CHAPTER I’, be inserted.” [This was followed by Mr. Ahmed’s speech.] #The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I oppose the amendment. The motion was negatived. $The Honourable Pandit Govind Vallabh Pant (United Provinces : General): Sir, I move that we now pass on to Article 2 and postpone discussion on the remaining amendments to Article 1. So far we have not been able to reach unanimity on this important point. I am not without hope that if the discussion is postponed, it may be possible to find some solution that may be acceptable to all. So nothing will be lost.... [Mr. Pant’s suggestion was supported by Mr. R. K, Sidhwa.] ***** @The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I support the suggestion made by Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. *CAD, (Official Report), Vol. VII, 15th November 1948, p. 426. †Ibid., p. 426. ‡Ibid., p. 430. #Ibid., p. 430. $Ibid., p. 431. @Ibid., p.431. 334 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

Seth Govind Das (C.P. & Berar : General) : Sir, I wholeheartedly support Pandit Pant’s proposition.... Shri H. V. Kamath : I only wanted to know for how long the amendments will be held over. An Honourable Member : It may be a day, a week or a fortnight. Mr. Vice-President : I hold that a discussion of these few clauses should be held over till sufficient time has been given for arriving at some sort of understanding. This will be to the best interests of the House and of the country at large. ***** ARTICLE 2 * Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Sir I beg to move : “That for article 2 and article 3. the following be substituted : 2. Parliament may by law— (a) admit into the Union new States ; (b) sub-divide any State to form two or more States : (c) amalgamate any two or more of the following classes of territories to form a State, namely— (i) Stales, (ii) part or parts of any State. (iii) newly acquired territory ; (d) give a name to any State admitted under item (a) or created under items (b) and (c) of this article ; (e) alter the name of any State : Provided that no Bill for the purpose shall be introduced in either House of Parliament except on the recommendation of the President and unless— (a) where the proposal contained in the Bill affects the boundaries or name of any State or States for the time being specified in Part I of the First Schedule, the views of the Legislative Assembly or in the case of a bi-cameral Legislature, of both Houses of the Legislature, of the State, or as the case may be, of each of the States both with respect to the proposal to introduce the Bill and with respect to the provisions thereof have been ascertained by the President; and (b) where the proposal affects the boundaries or name of any State or States for the time being specified in Part III of the First Schedule, the previous consent of the State, or as the case may be, of each of the States to the proposal has been ascertained’.”. [This was followed by the speech of the mover.] ***** †Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : ...My next amendment which I shall move in this connection is as follows :— “That in Article 2 the words ‘from time to time’ be delected.” [Mr. Ahmed explains his amendment] ***** ‡Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : Sir, I oppose these amendments. These are verbal matters and I would even appeal to you * CAD, (Official Report). Vol. VII, 15th November 1948, p. 431. †Ibid., 18th November 1948, p. 435. ‡Ibid., 18th November 1948, p. 435. 335DRAFT CONSTITUTION

not to allow such amendments. I request you to put it to vote now. ***** *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I oppose the amendments. Mr. Vice-President : I will put the amendments Nos. 131 and 132 to vole. Dr. Ambedkar has spoken already and there cannot he any further discussion. The amendments were negatived.. ***** Shri H. V. Kamath : Sir, I wish to speak on Article 2. Mr. Vice-President Sir, it appears to me that lucre is a little lacuna in this Article which my Honourable friend, the able jurist and constitutional lawyer that he is, will rectify when it is finally dialled by the committee. If we turn to the report of the Union Constitution Committee.—I am reading from the report of (he Committee, second series, from July to August 1947. copy of which was supplied to each member last year—there Article 2 begins thus :—“The Parliament of the Federation” of course, we have changed the word Federation into Union but here you import the word ‘Parliament’ suddenly in Article 2 without saying to which Parliament it refers. This is a lacuna, because there is nothing so far in the previous article regarding Parliament. So we must say here the “Parliament of the Union.” This lacuna, I hope. will be rectified. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : We shall take note of what Mr. Kamath has said. Article 2 was added to the Constitution. ***** ARTICLE 3 †The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam (Madras : General) : Sir, I move : “That in clause (a) of article 3, the following words be added at the end: ‘or by addition of other territories to States or parts of States’.” ***** Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : I request the House to accept the amendment because by this addition alone will the article become complete. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. Vice-President. I am agreeable to the principle of the amendment moved by my friend Mr. Santhanam. The only point is that I like slightly to alter the language to read “or by uniting any territory to a part of any State”. *CAD. (Official Report), Vol. VII. 18th November 1948. p. 435. † Ibid., p. 435. 336 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I am agreeable to the change. The motion was adopted. ***** *Rai Bahadur Syamanandan Sahaya (Bihar ; General) : Sir, may I make a submission. I think that if Dr. Ambedkar moves his next amendment things will be clarified and such of us as have amendments in our names will be able to decide whether we should move them or not. Mr. Vice-President : I agree with you fully. Dr. Ambedkar may move his amendment. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move : “That for the existing proviso to article 3, the following proviso he substituted : ‘Provided that no Bill for the purpose shall be introduced in either House of Parliament, except on the recommendation of the President and unless— (a) where the proposal contained in the Bill affects the boundaries or name of any State or States for the time being specified in Part I of the First Schedule, the views of the Legislature of the State, or as the case may be, of each of the States both with respect to the proposal to introduce the Bill and with respect to the provisions thereof have been ascertained by the President; and (b) where such proposal affects the boundaries or name of any State or States for the time being specified in Part III of the First Schedule, the previous consent of the State, or as the case may be, of each of the States to the proposal has been obtained.’.” Mr. Vice-President, if one were to compare the amended proviso with the original proviso as it was set out in the Draft Constitution, the members will see that the new amendment introduces two changes. One is this : in original draft the power to introduce the Bill was given exclusively to the Government of India. No private Member of Parliament had the power, under the original draft, to propose any legislation of this sort. Attention of the Drafting Committee was drawn to the fact that this was a somewhat severe and unnecessary curtailment of the right of the members of Parliament to move any motion they liked and in which they felt concerned. Consequently we deleted this provision giving the power exclusively to the Government of India, and gave it to the President and stated that any such Bill whether it was brought by the Government of India or by any private Member should have the recommendation of the President. That is one change. The second change is this : under the original Article 3, the power of the Government of India to introduce legislation was restricted by two conditions which are mentioned in (a) (i) and (ii). The conditions were that there must be, before the initiation of any action, representation * CAD. (Official Report), Vol. VII, 17th November 1948. pp. 439-40. 337DRAFT CONSTITUTION