Vol. 15 · pages 236–240

219PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (2) The electoral college for each State or group of States specified in the first column of the Fifth Schedule shall consist of the number of members specified in the second column thereof opposite to that State or group of States to be chosen by direct election. (3) The electoral college first constituted under this Act for any State or group of State; shall be reconstituted by a fresh election every time when there is a general election held in that State or group of States for the purpose of election of members to the House of the People, and on every such reconstitution the electoral college, for that State or group of States functioining immediately before such reconstitution shall be deemed to be dissolved and the electoral college so reconstituted shall be the electoral college for such State or group of States, as the case may be for the purposes of this Act. (4) Any casual vacancy in the seat of a member of an electoral college shall be filled by election held in the constituency concerned in the manner in which the election of that member to such seat was held. 27B.—Council of States constituencies. —For the purpose of election of members to the electoral college for any State or group of States there shall be the constituencies provided by order under section 27C and no other constituencies. 27C. Delimitation of Council of States Constituencies. —As soon as may be after the commencement of this Act, the President shall by order determine— ( a) the constituencies into which each State or group of States specified in the first column of the Fifth Schedule shall be divided for the purpose of election of member to the electoral college for such State or group of States; ( b) the extent of each constituency; and ( c) the number of seats allotted to each constituency. 27D. Power to alter or amend orders. —The President may, from time to time, after consulting the Election Commission, by order, alter or amend any order made by him under section 27C. 27E. Procedure as to orders delimiting constituencies. —(1) The Election Commission shall,— (a) in consultation with the Advisory Committee set up under subsection (1) of section 13 in respect of each Part C State specified in the first column of the Fifth Schedule, other than Bilaspur and Himachal Pradesh, formulate proposals as to the delimitation of constituencies in that state under section 27C, and (b) in consulation with the Advisory Committee set up under the said sub-section in respect of Himachal Pradesh, formulate proposals as to the delimitation of constituencies in the states of Bilaspur and Himachal Pradesh under section 27C,

220 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES and submit the proposals to the President for making the order under the said section 27C. (2) Every order made under section 27C shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be after it is made and shall be subject to such modifications as Parliament may make on a motion made within twenty days from the date on which the order is so laid. 27F. Electoral rolls for Council of States constituencies. —(1) For the purpose of election of members to the electoral college for any State or group of States there shall be an electoral roll for every Council of States constituency in that State or group of States. (2) So much of the roll or rolls for any Parliamentary constituency or constituencies for the time being in force under Part III as relate to the areas comprised within a Council of States constituency shall be deemed to be the electoral roll for that Council of States constituency. 27G. Termination of membership of electoral college for certain disqualifications. —If a person who is a member of an electoral college becomes subject to any disqualification for membership of Parliament under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt and illegal practices and other offences in connection with election to Parliament he shall thereupon cease to be such member of electoral college. Manner of States allotted to Part C States. —Save as otherwise provided in section 27-I the seat or seats in the Council of States allotted to any Part C State or group of such States in the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution shall be filled by a person or persons elected by the members of the electoral college for such State or group of States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. 27-I. Special provisions for the filling of the seats in the Council of States allotted to the States of Ajmer and Coorg and the States of Tripura and Manipur. —(1) The seat in the Council of States allotted to the States of Ajmer and Coorg in the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution shall be filled by a person elected by the members of the electoral college for the State of Ajmer and by the elected members of the Coorg Legislative Council in rotation, that is to say, at the first general election and at every second subsequent biennial election the said seat shall be filled by a person elected by the members of the electoral college for the State of Ajmer and at the first biennial election and at every third subsequent biennial election the said seat shall be filled by a person elected by the elected members of the Coorg Legislative Council. (2) The seat in the Council of States allotted to the States of Tripura and Manipur in the said Schedule shall be filled by a person elected by the members of the electoral college for the State of Tripura and by the members of the electoral college for the State of Manipur by rotation, that is to say, at the first general election and at every second

221PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES subsequent biennial election the said seat shall be filled by a person elected by the members of the electoral college for the State of Tripura and at the first biennial election and at every third subsequent biennial election the said seat shall be filled by a person elected by the members of the electoral college for the State of Manipur. (3) The casual vacancy in the seat allotted to the States of Ajmer and Coorg or to the States of Tripura and Manipur shall be filled by election in the State in which the election to fill the seat was held at the last preceding general or biennial election, as the case may be. (4) Every election held under sub-section (1), sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. 27J. Replacement of electoral colleges by bodies created under article 240 to function as legislatures. —Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this Part— ( a) if a body is created by Parliament by law under article 240 for any of the States specified in the first column of the Fifth Schedule, other than Bilaspur and Himachal Pradesh, to function as a legislature for that State, then after such body has been constituted it shall not be necessary to constitute or reconstitute any electoral college for that State and on the constitution of such body any electoral college for the time being functioning, for such state shall be deemed to be dissolved, and section 27H or section 27I, as the case may be, shall in its application to that State, have effect as if for any reference to the electoral college for such State in that section there were substituted a reference to the body so created for such State. ( b) if any such body as aforesaid is so created for each of the States of Bilaspur and Himachal Pradesh, then after both such bodies have been constituted, it shall not be necessary to constitute or reconstitute any electoral college for those States and on the constitution of both such bodies any electoral college for the time being functioning for those States shall be deemed to be dissolved, and section 27H shall, in its application to that group of States, have effect as if for the reference to the electoral college for the said group of States in that section there were substituted a reference to the bodies so created for those States; and ( c) if any such body as aforesaid is so created for the State of Coorg, then on the constitution of such body section 27-I shall, in its application to that State, have effect as if for any reference to the Coorg Legislative Council in that section there were substituted a reference to the body so created for such State’.”

222 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES * Mr. Speaker : Amendment of Shri Deshbandhu Gupta moved : In the amendment by Dr. Ambedkar, in the proposed new clause 10B, Before the existing first Proviso to sub-section (1) of the proposed new section 27A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, insert the following new Proviso : “ Provided that for the purpose of filling the seat allotted to the State of Delhi, the elected members of all local bodies such as Municipal Committees, District Board and notified area committees and members elected to the Chief Commissioner’s Advisory Council and the House of People shall form the electoral college.” Dr. Ambedkar : With regard to the amendment moved by my hon. Friend, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, there are one or two points to which I would like to make a reference. In a way this amendment read with the other provisions which the House has now passed for the purpose of making provision for elected representatives of Part C States to the Upper Chamber ” appears to be somewhat incongruous. There we are creating an electoral college elected by adult suffrage. Here we are retaining the original scheme contained in the Bill, namely, that the representation should be by indirect means through local authorities, but I do not think that is a very grave objection to the acceptance of this proposal in view of the fact that my hon. Friend, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, told us this morning that all these bodies are in a very short period going to be democratized and are likely to be elected by audit suffrage. In view of that, it is a mere matter of fancy, it seems to me, whether you would take the municipality or the local board as a basis for election or whether you would go down and dilute it further and make it as the basis for election. Therefore fundamentally I have no objection to his proposal. There are two other points to which I would like to make a reference. In view of the fact that he is making local authorities as instruments for election, it does appear that there are certain local authorities in the Delhi province where the members are not elected but are nominated. Take, for instance, the New Delhi Municipality. I understand that there * P. D., Vol. 7, Part II, 21st December 1950, pp. 2231-33.

223PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES is a very large element of nomination there and I do not suppose that my hon. Friend, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, will insist that the persons who are nominated to the Delhi Municipality although they have not been elected by adult suffrage are from the point of view of intelligence, from the point of civic sense going to be in any way inferior to persons elected, by other municipalities. I would therefore suggest that I should be quite prepared to accept his amendment provided he agrees to delete the word ‘elected’ from his clause. The second thing that I would suggest to him, which I think is a mere matter of drafting aesthetics, is that it would be better if his proposition was to be put in as sub-clause (5) of section 27A rather than as a proviso. I have gone through the whole thing. It seems to me that it would be much neater to put this as sub-clause (5). Subject to this, I have no objection to accept it. Shri Deshbandhu Gupta : May I point out, Sir, that I want to have one clarification from the Hon. Minister, when he says that I should agree to delete the word ‘ elected ’, does he realise that there is a big element of nomination in other local bodies also? If the idea is only to have representation for New Delhi, which is a wholly nominated body, then, the purpose would be better served by having non-official members of the New Delhi Municipal Committee. There are 7 or 8 members. In Old Delhi, there are 50 elected and 10 nominated members. In Shahdara there are 10 elected and 5 nominated members. Does he want that all these nominated Members also should be given the right to vote ? Dr. Ambedkar : I do not see any reason to make any discrimination. Shri Deshbandhu Gupta : I stick to the word ‘elected’. But I am prepared to include non-official members of the New Delhi Municipality. Dr. Ambedkar : All right.