Vol. 13 · pages 836–840

803DRAFT CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 269 *Mr. President : There are some amendments which are printed in the II Volume of the printed amendments on page 313. Then we shall take up amendment No. 107 by Dr. Ambedkar. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move : “That in clause (1) of article 269, the words and figures ‘for the time being specified in Part I of the First Schedule’, be omitted.” “That in clause (1) of article 269, for the words ‘revenues of the State’ the words ‘Consolidated Fund of the State’, be substituted.” “That with reference to amendment No. 2972 of the List of Amendments, for clause (2) of article 269, the following clause be substituted :— ‘(2) The Government of India may, subject to such conditions as may be laid down by or under any law made by Parliament, make loans to any State or, so long as any limits fixed under article 26S of this Constitution are not exceeded, give guarantees in respect of loans raised by any State, and any sums required for the purpose of making such loans shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.’ ” The important change by my amendment No. 107 is that originally the Government of India was given a free hand in this matter ; now the action, of the Government of India is subject to such conditions as may be laid down by or under any law made by Parliament. Sir, I move : “That in clause (3) of article 269, the- words and figures ‘for the time being specified in Part I or Part in of the First Schedule’ be omitted.” The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I do not think. Sir, any reply is called for. [Article 269, as amended by Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment was adopted and added to the Constitution] ARTICLES 5 AND 6 †Mr. President : We have now to take up articles 5 and 6 of the original draft. I find there is a veritable jungle of amendments, something like 130 or 140 amendments, to these two articles. I suggest that the best course will be for Dr. Ambedkar to move the articles in the form in which he has finally framed them and I shall then take up the amendments to this amended draft. Both 5 and 6 go together, I think, Dr. Ambedkar. Prof. K. T. Shah : May I know what happens to the amendments in the Printed List 7 They have all been tabled as amendments to the * CAD, Vol. IX, dated 10th August 1949, pp. 340-42. †Ibid., pp. 343-44.

804 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES original draft. I do not quite understand your suggestion as to the process in which the amendments would now be taken up. Mr. President : If there is any amendment which is of a substantial nature, which touches any of the amended drafts as proposed by the Drafting Committee, I shall certainly take it up, but I leave it to the Members to point out to me which particular amendment they wish to move. Dr. P. S. Deshmukh : If the original draft is not moved, all the amendments tabled to that draft go by the wind. Mr. President : We do not move the original draft, but it will be taken as moved and then the other amendments come in. Members will find that Dr. Ambedkar has given notice of certain amendments which have been circulated to Members. The first is No. 1 in List I. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, May I give the references ? The amendments of which notice has been given about the citizenship clause are spread over various lists, and I propose to give in the beginning to Members the references to the various lists. The first amendment is No. 1 of List I. Then come amendments Nos. 128, 129, 130, 131, 132 and 133 of List IV. These are the various proposals of the Drafting Committee with regard to this article. I feel that the House may not be in a position to get a clear and complete idea if these amendments were moved bit by bit, separately. Therefore what I propose to do is this that I will move a consolidated amendment, so to say, which I have prepared, consisting of amendments Nos. 1, 128, 129, 130 and 133. My Friend, Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari, will subsequently move the other two amendments which are Nos. 131 and 132 in List IV. In amendment No. 129, it should read “of the proposed article 5A” instead of “of the proposed article 5.” It is a printing error. With these preliminary observations, so to say, I move my amendment: “That for articles 5 and 6, the following articles be substituted :— “5. At the date of commencement of this Constitution, every person who has his domicile the territory in India and— Citizenship at the date of Commencement this Con- stitution. (a) who was horn in the territory of India ; or (b) either of whose parents was born in the territory of India ; or (c)who has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years immediately preceding the date of such commencement.

805DRAFT CONSTITUTION shall be a citizen of India, provided that he has not voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State. 5-A. Notwithstanding anything contained in article 5 of this Constitution, Rights of citizenship of certain persons who have nugrated to India from Pakistan. a person who has migrated to the territory of India from the territory now included in Pakistan shall be deemed to be a citizen of India at the date of commencement of this Constitution if— (a) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents was born in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 (as originally enacted); and (b) (i) in the case where such person has so migrated before the nineteenth day of July 1948, he has ordinarily resided within the territory of India since the date of his migration; and (ii) in the case where such person has so migrated on or after the nineteenth day of July 1948 he has been registered as a citizen of India by an officer appointed in this behalf by the Government of the Dominion of India on an application made by him therefor to such officer before the date of commencement of this Constitution in the form prescribed for the purpose by that Government: Provided that no such registration shall be made unless the person making the application has resided in the territory of India for at least six months before the date of his application. 5-AA. Notwithstanding anything contained in articles 5 and 5-A of this Rights of citizenship of certain migrants to Pakistan. Constitution a person who has after the first day of March 1947. migrated from the territory of India to the territory now included in Pakistan shall not be deemed to be a citizen of India : Provided that nothing in this article shall apply to a person who, after having so migrated to the territory now included in Pakistan has returned to the territory of India under a permit for resettlement or permanent return issued by or under the authority of any law and every such person shall for the purposes of clause (h) of article 5-A of this Constitution be deemed to have migrated to the territoty of India after the nineteenth day of July 1948. Shri Jaspat Roy Kapoor (United Provinces : General) : This, you had said, would be moved by Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I have included it in the consolidated article as I am proposing to accept the amendment which will be moved by him. 5-B. Notwithstanding anything contained in articles 5 and 5-A of this Constitution, any person who or either of whose parents or any of whose grand parents was born in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 (as originally enacted) and who is ordinarily residing in any territory outside India as so defined shall be deemed to he a citizen of India if he has been registered as a citizen of India by the diplomatic or consular representative of India in the country where he is for the time being residing on an application made by him therefor to such diplomatic or consular representative, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution in the form prescribed for the purpose by the Government of the Dominion of India or the Government of India. Right of citizenship of certain persons of Indian origin residing outside India.

806 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES 5-C. Every person who is a citizen of India under any of the foregoing provisions of this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such citizen. 6. Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.” Sir, I would reserve my remarks alter the amendments to my draft are moved by Mr. T. T. Krishnamachari and that will complete the thing. ***** *Mr. President : If we take up all the other amendments, I think there will not be any end to them. First, let Dr. Ambedkar explain his proposition and then the oilier amendments may be moved. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, Sir, except one other article in the Draft Constitution, I do not think that any other article has given the Drafting Committee such a headache as this particular article. I do not know how many drafts were prepared and how many were destroyed as being inadequate to cover all the cases which it was thought necessary and desirable to cover. I think it is a piece of good fortune for the Drafting Committee to have ultimately agreed upon the draft which I have moved, because I feel that this is the draft which satisfies most people, if not all. An Honourable Member : Question. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Now, Sir, this article refers to citizenship not in any general sense but to citizenship on the date of the commencement of this Constitution. It is not the object of this particular article to lay down a permanent law of citizenship for this country. The business of laying down a permanent law of citizenship has been left to Parliament, and as Members will see from the wording of article 6 as I have moved, the entire matter regarding citizenship has been left to Parliament to determine by any law that it may deem fit. The article reads— “Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.” The effect of article 6 is this, that Parliament may not only take away citizenship from those who are declared to be citizens on the date of the commencement of this Constitution by the provisions of article 5 Continuance of the rights of Citizenship. Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law. * CAD, Vol. IX, dated 10th August 1949, pp. 346-49.

807DRAFT CONSTITUTION and those that follow, but Parliament may make altogether a new law embodying new principles. That is the first proposition that has to be borne in mind by those who will participate in the debate on these articles. They must not understand that the provisions that we are making for citizenship on the date of the commencement of this Constitution are going to be permanent or unalterable. All that we are doing is to decide ad hoc for the time being. Having said that, I would like to draw the attention of the Members to the fact that in conferring citizenship on the date of the commencement of this Constitution, the Drafting Committee has provided for five different classes of people who can, provided they satisfy the terms and conditions which are laid down in this article, become citizens on the date on which the Constitution commences. These five categories are : (1) Persons domiciled in India and bom in India : In other words, those who form the bulk of the population of India as defined by this Constitution ; (2) Persons who are domiciled in India but who are not born in India but who have resided in India. For instance persons who are the subjects of the Portuguese Settlements in India or the French Settlements in India like Chandernagore. Pondicherry, or the Iranians for the matter of that who have come from Persia and although they are not born here, they have resided for a long tune and undoubtedly have the intention of becoming the citizens of India. The three other categories of people whom the Drafting Committee proposes to bring within the ambit of this article are : (3) Persons who are residents in India but who have migrated to Pakistan ; (4) Persons resident in Pakistan and who have migrated to India ; and (5) Persons who or whose parents are born in India but are residing outside India. These are the live categories of people who are covered by the provisions of this article. Now the first category of people viz., persons who are domiciled in the territory of India and who are born in the territory of India or whose parents were born in the territory of India are dealt with in article 5 clauses (a) and (b). They will be citizens under those provisions if they satisfy the conditions laid down there. The second class of people to whom I referred, viz., persons who have resided in India but who are not born in India are covered by clause (c) of article 5, who have been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years immediately preceding the date of such commencement. The condition that it imposes is this that he must be