Vol. 13 · pages 881–885

848 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES opportunity of expressing itself on the general principles. Now it is those very principles which are sought to be embodied in the resolution which has been placed before the House by Dr. Ambedkar. I do not think any further discussion will help the Members. I therefore call upon Dr. Ambedkar to speak. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, Sir, a great many of the points which were raised in the course of the debate on this article and the various amendments are, in my judgment, quite irrelevant to the subject matter of this article. They might well be raised when we will come to the discussion of the electoral laws and the framing of the constituencies. I, therefore, do not propose to deal with them at this stage. There are just three points which, I think, call for a reply. One point is the one which is raised by Mr. Laskar by his amendment. His amendment is to introduce the words “save in the case of the Scheduled Castes in Assam”. I have completely failed to understand what he intends to do by the introduction of these words. If these words were introduced it would mean that the Scheduled Castes in Aasam will not be entitled to get the representation which the article proposes to give them in the Lower House of the Central Parliament, because if the words stand as they are, “save in the case of the Scheduled Castes in Assam” unaccompanied by any other provision, I cannot see what other effect it would have except to deprive the Scheduled Castes of Assam of the right to representation which has been given to them. If I understand him correctly, I think the matter, which he has raised, legitimately refers to article 67B of the Constitution which has already been passed. In that article it has been provided that the ratio of representation in the Legislature should have a definite relation to certain population figures. It has been laid down that the representation in the Lower House at the Centre shall be not less than one representative for every 7,50,000 people, or not more than one representative for a population of 5,00,000. According to what he was saying—and I must confess that it was utterly impossible for me to hear anything that he was saying— but if I gathered the purport of it, he seems to be under the impression that on account of the division of Sylhet district the population of the Scheduled Castes in Assam has been considerably reduced and that there may not be any such figure as we have laid down, namely 7,50,000 or 5,00,000, with the result that he feels that the Scheduled Castes of Assam will not get any representation. But I should like to tell him that the provision in article 61(5)(b) does not apply to the Scheduled Castes.

849DRAFT CONSTITUTION It applies to the constituency. What it means is that if a constituency consists of 7,50,000 people, that constituency will have one seat. It may be that within that constituency the population of the Scheduled Castes is much smaller, but that would not prevent either the Delimitation Committee or Parliament from allotting a seat for the Scheduled Castes in that particular area. His fear, therefore, in my judgment, is utterly groundless. Then I come to the amendment moved by Sardar Hukam Singh in which he suggests that provision ought to be made whereby the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes would be entitled to contest seats which are generally not reserved for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes. He said that the Drafting Committee has made a deliberate omission. I do not think that is correct. It is accepted that, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be entitled to contest seats which are not reserved seats, which are unreserved seats. That is contained in the report of the Advisory Committee which has already been accepted by the House. The reason why that particular provision has not been introduced in article 292 is because it is not germane at this place. This proposition will find its place in the law relating to election with which this Assembly or the Assembly in its legislative capacity will have to deal with. He therefore need have no tear on that ground. With regard to the point raised by my Friend Mr. Pillai that the population according to which seats are to be reserved should be estimated by a fresh census, that matter has been agitated in this House on very many occasions. I then said that it was quite impossible for the Government to commit itself to taking a fresh census but the Government has kept its mind open. If it is feasible the government may take a fresh census in order to estimate the population of the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in order to calculate the total representation that they would be entitled to in accordance with the provisions of article 292. The Government is also suggesting that if in any case it is not possible to have a fresh census, they will estimate the population of these communities on the basis of the voters’ strength which may be calculated from them, in which case we might be able to arrive at what might be called a rough and ready estimate of the population. I do not think it is possible for me to go beyond that. All the other amendments I oppose. [Article 292, as amended by Dr. Ambedkar’s motion was added to the Constitution.] *****

850 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES ARTICLE 293 *Mr. President : Dr. Ambedkar. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I do not think it is necessary to say anything. [Article 293 was added to the constitution without any amendment.] ARTICLE 294 †The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move : “That for article 294, the following be substituted :— 294. (1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, except the Scheduled Tribes in the tribal areas of the Assam in the Legislative Assembly of every State for the time being specified in Part I or Part III of the First Schedule. (2) Seats shall be reserved also for the autonomous districts in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam. (3) The number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative assembly of any State under clause { I) of this article shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats in the assembly as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the State or of the Scheduled Tribes in the State or part of the State, as the case may be, in respect of which seats are so reserved bears to the total population of the State. (4) The number of seats reserved for an autonomous district in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Assam shall bear to the total number of seats in that Assembly a proportion not less than the population of the district bears to the total population of the State. (5) The constituencies for the seats reserved for any autonomous district of the State of Assam shall not comprise any area outside that district except in the case of the constituency comprising the cantonment and the Municipality of Shillong. (6) No person who is not a member of a Scheduled Tribe of any autonomous district of the State of Assam shall be eligible for election to the Legislative Assembly of the State from any constituency of that district except from the constituency comprising the cantonment and municipality of Shilong.’ ” This article is exactly the same as the original article as it stood in the Draft Constitution. The only amendment is that the provision for the reservation of seats for the Muslims and the Christians has been omitted from clasue (1) of article 294. That is in accordance with the decision taken by this Assembly on that matter. ARTICLE 295-A ‡The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move : Reservation of seats for minorities in Legislative Assemblies of the States *CAD, Vol. IX, 24nd August 1949, pp. 662. †Ibid., p. 663. ‡Ibid., p. 674.

851DRAFT CONSTITUTION “That after article 295, the following new article be inserted :— ‘295-A. Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this Part, the provisions of this Constitution relating to the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes either in the House of the People or in the Legislative Assembly of a State shall cease to have effect on the expiration of a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution.” This is also in accordance with the decision of the House. I do not think any explanation is necessary. ***** *Mr. President : Dr. Ambedkar. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Mr. President, Sir, there are just four amendments about which I would like to say a few words. I will first take the amendment of my Friend Mr. Bhargava, and say that I am prepared to accept his amendment, because I find that although in the general body of the report that was made to this House, no mention as to time-limit was made to the proposal for allowing representation to Anglo-Indians by nomination, I find that in the subsequent debate which took place on that report, there is an amendment moved by my friend Pandit Bhargava which is very much in the same terms as the amendment which he has now moved, and I find that that amendment of his was accepted by the House. I, therefore, am bound to accept the amendment that he has moved now. Next, with regard to the question raised by Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad, one part of it has been, I think, met by the amendment moved by my Friend Mr. Krishnamachari which I also accept. I am not at all clear in my own mind at the present stage whether the words in the clause mean that the time-limit should begin to operate from the commencement of the Con stitution or whether from the date of the first election to the new Parliament. But all I can say at this stage is that that is a matter which the Drafting Committee will consider and if it is necessary, they will bring about some amendment to carry out the intention that the period should be from the date of first meeting of the first Parliament. With regard to the other arguments which have been used by my friends Mr. Muniswami Pillai and Mr. Monomohan Das, I am sorry it is not possible to accept that amendment. Their proposal is that while they are prepared to leave the clause as it is, they propose to vest Parliament with the power to alter this clause by further extension of the period of ten years. Now first of all we have as I said, introduced this matter in the Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to cease to be in force after the expiration of ten years from the commencement of this constitution *CAD, Vol. IX, 25th August 1949, pp. 696-697.

852 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Constitution itself, and I do not think that we should permit any change to be made in this, except by the amendment of the Constitution itself. I would like to say one or two words on the remarks of Members of the Scheduled Castes who have spoken in somewhat passionate and vehement terms on the limitation imposed by this article. I have to say that they have really no cause for complaint, because the decision to limit the thing to ten years was really a decision which has been arrived at with their consent. I personally was prepared to press for a larger time, because I do feel that so far as the Scheduled Castes are concerned, they are not treated on the same footing as the other minorities. For instance, so far as I know the special reservation for the Mussalmans started in the year 1892; so to say, the beginning was made then. Therefore, the Muslims had practically enjoyed these privileges for more or less sixty years. The Christians got this privilege under the Constitution of 1920 and they have enjoyed it for 28 years. The Scheduled Castes got this only in the Constitution of 1935. The commencement of this benefit of special reservation practically began in the year 1937 when that Act came into operation. Unfortunately for them, they had the benefit of this only for two years, for from 1939 practically up to the present moment, or up to 1946, the Constitution was suspended and the Scheduled Castes were not in a position to enjoy the benefits of the privileges which were given to them in the 1935 Act, and it would have been quite proper I think, and generous on the part of this House to have given the Scheduled Castes a longer term with regard to these reservations. But as I said, it was all accepted by the House. It was accepted by Mr. Nagappa and Mr. Muniswamy Pillai and all these Members, if I may say so—I am not making any complaint—were acting on the other side, and I think it is not right now to go back on these provisions. If at the end of the ten years, the Scheduled Castes find that their position has not improved or that they want further extension of this period, it will not be beyond their capacity or their intelligence to invent new ways of getting the same protection which they are promised here. Shri A. V. Thakkar (Saurashtra) : What about the Scheduled Tribes who are lower down in the scale ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : For the Scheduled Tribes I am prepared to give far longer time. But all those who have spoken about the reservations to the Scheduled Castes or to the Scheduled Tribes have been so meticulous that the thing should end by ten years. All I want to