Vol. 13 · pages 851–855

818 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Dr. P. S. Deshmukh : But Dr. Ambedkar is not the Minister in charge. Mr. Vice-President : Yes, that is so ; and the Honourable Member Mr. Kamath has had ample opportunity to speak on this clause. I therefore accept the motion for closure. The question is : “That the question be now put.” The motion was adopted. ***** ARTICLE 150 (Contd.) *Mr. Vice-President : (Shri V. T. Krishnamachari) : Today we begin with article 150. The House will remember that there was a debate on this article as it originally stood and after three amendments were moved, the article was recommitted to the Drafting Committee. Dr. Ambedkar has now given notice of a new article. I request him to move that article, amendment No. 1 of List I (Fourth Week). Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad (West Bengal; Muslim) : Sir, I have a point of Order. Shall I move it just now or after the amendment is moved ? Mr. Vice-President : You may move it just now. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, as I have been observing for some time that the Drafting Committee has been springing surprise after surprise on the Members. Every day new amendments of a sweeping character are being sent in by the Draftting Committee. They come in all of a sudden like Air Raids. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Where is the point of Order ? Mr. Vice-President: May I remind the honourable Member that this amendment has been brought before the House by Dr. Ambedkar and the Drafting Committee in response to the desire universally expressed in the House. For this reason, I rule out this point of Order. I now ask Dr. Ambedkar to move his amendment. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, I move : “That for article 150, the following be substituted:— 150. (1) The total number of members in the Legislative Council of a .State having such a Council shall not exceed one-fourth of the total number of members in the Assembly of that State ; Provided that the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State shall in no case be less than forty. Composition of the Legislative Council. * CAD, Vol. IX, dated 19th August 1949, pp. 473-74

819DRAFT CONSTITUTION (2) Until Parliament may by law otherwise provide, the composition of the Legislative Council of a State shall he as provided in, clause (3) of this article. (3) Of the total number of members in the Legislative Council of a State— (a) as nearly as may be, one-third shall be elected by electorates consisting of members of municipalities, district broads and such other local authorities as Parliament may by law specify ; (b) as nearly as may be, one-twelfth shall be elected by electorates consisting of persons who have been for at least three years graduates of any university in the State and persons possessing for at least three years qualifications prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament as equivalent to that of a graduate of any such university ; (c) as nearly as may be, one-twelfth shall be elected by electorates consisting of persons who have been for at least three years engaged in teaching in such educational institutions within the State, not lower in standard than that of a secondary school as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament; (d) as nearly as may be, one-third shall be elected by the members of the Legislative Assembly of the State from amongst persons who are not members of the Assembly ; (e) the remainder shall be nominated by the Governor in the manner provided in clause (5) of this article. (4) The members to be elected under sub-clauses (a), (b) and (c) of clause (3) of this article shall be chosen in such territorial constituencies as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament, and the elections under the said sub-clauses and under sub-clause (d) of the said clause shall be in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. (5) The members to be nominated by the Governor under sub-clause (e) of clause (3) of this article shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely :— literature, science, art, co-operative movement and social services.’ ” As you have said, Sir, this article in a different form was before the House last time. The article as it then stood, merely said that the composition of the Upper Chamber shall be as may be prescribed by law made by Parliament. The House thought that that was not the proper way of dealing with an important part of the constitutional structure of a provincial legislature, and that there shall be something concrete and specific in the matter of the constitution of the Upper Chamber. The President of the Constituent Assembly said that he shared the feelings of those Members of the House who took that view, and suggested that the matter may be further considered by the Drafting Committee with a view to presenting a draft which might be more acceptable to those Members who had taken that line of criticism. As honourable Members will see, the draft presented here is a compromise between the two points of view. This draft sets out in concrete terms

820 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES the composition of the Upper Chamber in the different provinces. The only thing it does is that it also provides that Parliament may by law alter at any time the composition laid down in this new article 150. I hope that this compromise will be acceptable to the House and that the House will be in a position to accept this amendment. ***** *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. Vice-President, Sir, out of the amendments that have been moved, I am prepared to accept the amendments moved by Mr. Sarwate. I think he has spotted a real difficulty in the draft as it stands. The draft says—‘University in the State’. It is quite obvious that there are many States with at present no university. All the same there are graduates from other Universities who are residing in mat State. It is certainly not the intention to take away the right of a graduate residing in a State to participate in the elections to the Upper Chamber merely because he does not happen to be a graduate of a University in that particular State. In order therefore to make the way clear for graduates residing in the particular Stale, I think this amendment is necessary and I propose to accept it. I would only say that the word ‘habitually’ is perhaps not necessary because residence as a qualification will be defined under the provisions of article 149 where we have the power to describe qualifications and disqualifications. With regard to the other points of criticisms I do not know that those who have indulged in high-flown phraseology in denouncing this particular article have done any service either to themselves or to the House. This is a matter which has been debated more than once. Whether there should be a Second Chamber in the province or not was a matter which was debated and the proposition has been accepted that those provinces who want Second Chambers should be permitted to have them. I do not know that any good purpose is served by repeating the same arguments which were urged by those Members at the time when that matter was discussed. With regard to the merits of the proposition which has been tabled before the House, I have not seen any single constructive suggestion on the part of any Member who has taken part in this debate as to what should be the alternative constitution of the Second Chamber. Here and * CAD, Vol. IX, dated 19th August 1949, pp. 490-91.

821DRAFT CONSTITUTION there bits have been taken and denunciations have been indulged in to point out either that that is a useful provision or a dangerous provision. Well, I am prepared to say that this is a matter where there can be two opinions and I am not prepared to say that the opinion I hold or the opinion of the Drafting Committee is the only correct one in this matter. We have to provide some kind of constitution and I am prepared to say that the constitution provided is as reasonable and as practicable as can be thought of in the present circumstances. Then there were two points that were made, one of them by my Friend Mr. Nagappa. He wanted that a provision should be made for there presentation of agricultural labour. I do not know that any such provision is necessary for the representation of agricultural labour in the Upper Chamber, because the Lower Chamber will be in my judgment having a very large representation of agricultural labour in view of the fact that the suffrage on which the Lower Chamber would be elected would be adult suffrage and I do not know……. Shri S. Nagappa : If that is the case, all other sections also to whom you are giving will also get representation in the Lower Chamber. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : They are provided for very different reasons but agricultural labour would be amply provided in the Lower Chamber. My friend Shri Muniswami Pillai by an amendment raised the question that there should be special representation for the Scheduled Castes in the Upper Chamber. Now, I should like to point out to Mm that so far as the Drafting Committee is concerned, it is governed by the report of the Advisory Committee which dealt with this matter. In the report of the Advisory Committee which was placed before the House during August 1947 the following provision finds a place :— “(c) There shall be reservation of seats for the Muslims in the Lower House of the Central and Provincial Legislatures on the basis of their population.” “3. (a) The section of Hindu community referred to as scheduled caste and defined in scheduled to the Government of India Act 1935 shall have the same rights and benefits which are herein provided for etc., etc., “which means that the representation to be guaranteed to the Scheduled Castes shall be guaranteed only in the Lower Houses of the Central and Provincial Legislatures. That being the decision of the Constitutent Assbmely, I do not think it is competent for the Drafting Committee to adopt any proposition which I do not want to injure anybody’s feeling, that if any one was vociferously in favour of this decision, it was my Friend Mr. Muniswamy Pillay and I think he ought to be content with what he agreed to abide by then.” Mr. Vice-President : Dr. Ambedkar you have to formally withdraw amendment No. 2.

822 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Yes, I have to withdraw it. The amendment was, by leave of the Assembly, withdraw. [6 amendments were negatived and five including the one by Dr. Ambedkar were withdrawn.] ***** *Mr. Vice-President : I now put Mr. Sarwate’s amendment to the House. The question is : “That in sub-clause (b) of clause (3) of the proposed article 150, after words ‘consisting of persons’ the words ‘resident in the State’ be added, and for the words ‘in the State’ the words ‘in the territory of India’ be substituted.” The amendment was adopted. [Article 150, as amended, was added to the Court.] PART VIII-A ARTICLE 215-A †The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move my amendment No. 6, List 1, Fourth Week. “That after Part VIII, the following new Part be inserted : — “PART VIII-A THE SCHEDULED AND TRIBAL AREAS 215-A. In this Constitution— (a) the expression ‘scheduled areas’ means the areas specified in Parts I to VII of Definitions the Table appended to paragraph 18 of the Fifth Schedule in relation to the States to which those Parts respectively relate subject to any order made under sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph ; (b) the expression ‘tribal areas ‘means the areas specified in Parts I and II of the Table appended to paragraph 19 of the Sixth Schedule subject to any order made under sub-paragraph (3) of paragraph 1 or clause (b) of sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 17 of that Schedule. 215B. (1) The provisions of the Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration and control of the scheduled areas and scheduled tribes in any State for the time being specified in Part I or Part III of the First Schedule other than the State of Assam. (2) The provisions of the Sixth Schedule shall apply to the administration of the tribal areas in the State of Assam. “ Sir, my amendment merely replaces the original articles 189 and 190. The only thing we are doing is that we are transferring the provisions contained in articles 189 and 190 to another and a separate part. It is because of the transposition that it has become necessary to re-number them in order to secure the necessary logical sequence of the new part. Barring minor changes, there are no changes of substance at all, in the new articles proposed by me—article 215 A and article 215B. ***** Administration of scheduled and tribal areas. * CAD, Vol. IX, dated 19th August 1949, p. 492. † Ibid., pp. 492-93.