Vol. 15 · pages 441–445

SECTION V TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES 34. Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill … 427-508

427PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (34) * REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE (AMENDMENT) BILL * The Minister of Law (Dr. Ambedkar): I beg to move: “That the Bill further to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950, be taken into consideration.” This is a very short Bill and it seeks to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 which was passed by this House some time ago. The object of the Bill is to provide for the representation in the House of the People for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in Part C States. As the House will remember under Articles 313 and 332, there is provision made by the Constitution itself for the representation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in Part A and Part B states. So far as Part C States are concerned, the matter has been left to Parliament and to the President. Article 82 of the Constitution says that so far as the representation of the people in Part C States is concerned, it shall be dealt with by Parliament and so far as the administration of Part C States is concerned, that is a matter which is left to be dealt with by Article 239. When the People’s Representation Bill was before the House, it should have, as a matter of propriety also contained the provisions which are now included in this present Bill. But unfortunately, Government at that time had not got sufficient information as to the number of seats that were going to be allotted to Part C States in the House of the People, nor were they in possession of the tribes and the castes which were to be included in the provisions relating to Part C States. Consequently, these provisions had to be held back and they are now brought forth before this House. * P. D., Vol. 10., Part II, 18th April 1951, pp. 7021-39.

428 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES There are really two points which require, I believe, some explanation. As the House knows, there are altogether ten Part C States. It has not been possible for Government to provide representation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in all the ten Part C States and the reason is this. We have had to consider two different propositions. One was whether the Part C States in which a provision was to be made for the representation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes had sufficient number of seats, so that if a seat was reserved for the Scheduled Caste or for the Scheduled Tribe, the result would not be the complete disenfranchisement of the general population. Obviously, there are some States which are included in Part C States where the total representation given to that particular State is only one seat in the House of the People. For instance, Bilaspur is one such State. Coorg is one such State where one that is given. Obviously, it is not possible to apply the principle of reservation in cases of that sort, where a seat could be allotted to the Scheduled Castes, the result of which would be total negation of the representation of the general population. Therefore, in providing representation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Part C States, we have had to select only those States where there is room for both to be represented in the Lower House. The second principle that we have had to take into consideration was the totality of the population of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in any particular Part C State. Where the population was very small, we have not thought it proper to give any representation. But, where the population is considerable having regard to the total population, we have thought that a seat might be given in those areas. Consequently, what the Bill does is this. It reserves seats for the Scheduled Castes in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Vindhya Pradesh, one seat in each of these three Part C States. Here, the House will see that there is no great resulting injustice for the simple reason that Delhi has four seats, Himachal Pradesh has three seats and Vindhya Pradesh has six seats. We have felt that these States could well afford to allow one seat to be given to the Scheduled Castes. 4-00 P.M.