Vol. 13 · pages 711–715

678 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES time to time. It would be perfectly possible for the executive without actually having any intention to break the Appropriation Act to incur expenditure in excess of what is voted by Parliament and draw upon the Contingency Fund or the other fund. Therefore a breach of the Act has been committed and it is possible to commit such an act because the executive in an emergency thinks it ought to be done and there is provision of fund for them to do so. The question, therefore, is this : when an act like this is done, are you not going to make a provision for the regularisation of that act ? In fact, if I may say so, the passing of an excess grant is nothing else but an Indemnity Act passed by Parliament to exonerate certain officers of government who have in good faith done something which is contrary to the law for the time being. There is nothing else in the idea of an excess grant and I would like to read to the Members of the House paragraph 230 from the House of Commons—Manual of Procedure for the public business. This is what paragraph 230 says :— “An excess grant is needed when a department has by means of advances from the Civil Contingencies Fund or the Treasury Chest Fund or cut of funds derived from extra receipts or otherwise spent the money on any service during any financial year in excess of the amount granted for that service and for that year.” Therefore, there is nothing very strange about it. The only tiling is that when there is a supplementary estimate the sanction is obtained without excess expenditure being incurred. In the case of excess grant the excess expenditure has already been incurred and the executive comes before Parliament for sanctioning what has already been spent. Therefore, I think there is no difficulty; not only there is no difficulty but there is a necessity, unless you go to the length of providing that when any executive officer spends any money beyond what is sanctioned by the Appropriation Act, he shall be deemed to be a criminal and prosecuted, you shall have to adopt this procedure of excess grant. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : May I ask if under the provisions of the law as stated in the new article 95(2) the three preceding articles will have effect ? Does it mean that every supplementary demand should be followed by a supplementary Appropriation Act. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes; that would be the intention. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : The appropriation will not be for the whole year ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : There may be supplementary appropriation. That always happens in the House of Commons. Prof. Shibban Lal Saksena : What about my amendment. Sir ?

679DRAFT CONSTITUTION The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambdkar : I am very sorry. Prof. Shibban Lal Saksena says that the financial year should be changed. Well, I have nothing to say except that I suspect that his motives are not very pure. He perhaps wants a winter session so that he can spin as long as he wants. If he wants longer sessions, he must sit during summer months as we are now doing. [Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment was accepted. Article 95, as amended, as mentioned earlier was added to the Constitution.] ***** ARTICLE 96 *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move : “That for article 96, the following article be substituted:— Votes on account, votes on credit and exceptional grants. ’96. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this Chapter, the House of the People shall have power— (a) to make any grant in advance in respect of the estimated expenditure for a part of any financial year pending the completion of the procedure prescribed in article 93 of this Constitution for the voting of such grant and the passing of the law in accordance with the provisions of article 94 of this Constitution in relation to that expenditure; (b) to make a grant for meeting an unexpected demand upon the resources of India when on account of the magnitude or the indefinite character of the service the demand cannot be staled with the details ordinarily given in an annual financial statement; (c) to make an exceptional grant which forms no part of the current service of any financial year; and to authorise by law the withdrawal of moneys from the consolidated Fund of India for the purpose for which the said grants are made. (2) The provisions of articles 93 and 94 of this Constitution shall have effect in relation to the making of any grant under clause (1) of this article and to any law to be made under that clause as they have effect in relation to the making of a grant with regard to any expenditure mentioned in the annual financial statement and the law to be made for the authorisation of appropriation of moneys out of the Consolidated Fund of India to meet such expenditure.’” The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Sir, I do not want to reopen the general principle which has been accepted; hut I wish to say that the drafting of this article is rather defective. For instance, in clause (1) it says, “the House of the People shall have power” and this is followed by, after sub-clause (c), “and to authorise by law…….” I think according to the Constitution, the House of the People cannot authorise by law. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I should say, Sir, that the Drafting Committee reserves to itself the liberty to re-draft the last three lines following sub-clause (c). *CAD, Vol. VIII, 10th June 1949, pp. 711-713.

680 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Sir, I am unable to understand this. In the House here we pass something which is obviously wrong and unconstitutional and then leave it to the Drafting Committee. I do not think we can leave it to the Drafting Committee to tamper with the provisions we are making unless there is some lacuna or a mistake. We do not want to be faced with a new Constitutional together and subjected to the trouble of looking at it article by article again. I do not think it is right for this House to pass a clause which is obviously wrong. Either he must say Parliament shall have power…… The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I am prepared to accept the amendment right now. You may suggest it. “Parliament shall have power to authorise by law. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Sir, the amendment may be, “and Parliament shall have power to authorise by law the withdrawal of moneys from the Consolidated Fund of India for the purposes for winch the said grants are made.” Coming to clause (2), it says “that the provisions of articles 93 and94 of this Constitution shall have effect in relation to the making of any grant...;” I want to know if this means that there will have to bean Appropriation Act for this and that Appropriation Act will also show all the divisions, charged and non-charged, votable and non-votable, as stated in the previous article. If that is the implication……. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That cannot be. The Honourable shri K. Santhanam : Article 93 says….. Shri T. T. Krishnamachari : If it will help the Honourable Member, we can say, there will be a Consolidated Fund Bill No. I before an Appropriation Act, which will have the main skeleton. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : What I want to know is whether the Consolidated Fund Bill No. I will also consist of the charged and non-charged amounts and voted and non-voted amounts, or will give only the votable portion. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The charged portion occurs only in the final Appropriation Act. This voting account gives what in the technical language of the House of Commons are called supply services as distinct from services charged on the revenues. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : This article says that the provisions of articles 93 and 94 will have to be complied with. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Articles 93 and 94 mean the voting of Appropriation Act.

681DRAFT CONSTITUTION The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Article 93, first part, says that the charged portion would be shown and the second part says that such portion as is votable shall be presented to the vote. I want to know whether both these portions will be appplicable to the voting account. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Article 93 says that the vote of the House is not necessary for services charged on the revenues of India. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : But, they will have to be shown in the Appropriation act. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : When passed. This is what is called Consolidated Fund Act I. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Article 94 does not deal with Consolidated Fund Act. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That is also the Appropriation Act. As I stated before, there is no distinction. The Appropriation Act shows the details while the Consolidated Fund Act does not show details. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I do not think Dr. Ambedkar’s explanations can override the precise provisions of an article. As the article stands, all the provisions of articles 93 and 94 will apply to this Consolidated Fund as to the other. Therefore, the entire budget procedure will have to be duplicated. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : If the honourable Member will read carefully sub-clause (2), he will see what sub-clause it deals with. It says, “The provisions of articles 93 and 94 of this Constitution shall have effect in relation to the making of any grant under clause (I). The Honourable shri K. Santhanam : Please read on . The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : As I stated, there is no question of grant with regard to services charged on the revenues. ***** *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I do not think there is any necessity to say anything more. I am only moving an amendment: “That after sub-clause (c), of clause (1), the following words be added after ‘and’ and before ‘to’:— ‘Parliament shall have power.’” [Amendment was accepted along with Dr. Ambedkar’s previous motion. Article 96, as amended, was added to the Constitution] ***** *CAD, Vol. VIII, 10th January 1949, p. 774.

682 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES ARTICLE 97 The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I do not think any reply is called for, but I would like. Sir, with your permission to move one amendment myself. I move : “That with reference to amendment No. 1723 of the List of Amendments, in clause (3) of article 97, for the words ‘revenues of India’ the words ‘Consolidated Fund of India’ be substituted.” Shri H. V. Kamath : The words at the end of the clause have been needlessly repeated. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I do not think so. ***** Mr. President : I shall now put Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment. The question is : “That with reference to amendment No. 1723 of the List of Amendments, in clause (3) of article 97, for the words ‘revenues of India’ the words ‘Consolidated Fund of India’ be substituted.” The amendment was adopted. Article 97, as amended, was added to the Constitution. ***** ARTICLE 98 †The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : All that I can say is that I cannot accept Mr. Jaspat Roy Kapoor’s amendment. It is much better that the matter be left elastic to be provided for by rules. With regard to Mr. Kamath’s amendment, I certainly feel drawn to it. But for the moment I cannot commit myself, but I can assure him that this matter will be considered by the Drafting Committee. Mr. President : Then I do not put Mr. Kamath’s amendment to the vote. I treat it as a drafting amendment which the Drafting Committee will consider. With regard to Mr. Jaspat Roy Kapoor’s amendment No. 15 I would like to draw Dr. Ambedkar’s attention to one point. In clause (2) of article 98 we have the words : “With respect to the Legislature of the Dominion of India.” In another place we have used the expression “Constituent Assembly of India”. I suppose Dr. Ambedkar would like to have the same expression here also ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes. Mr. President : I was pointing out that here in this clause (2), the expression “Legislature of the Dominion of India” occurs. Perhaps, the expression ‘Constituent Assembly of India’ will be better ? *CAD, Vol. VIII, 10th January 1949, pp. 777-78 † Ibid., pp. 780-81.