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*ON THE HEREDITARY OFFICES ACT AMENDMENT BILL No. XXIII OF 1937

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar ( Bombay City ): Sir, I rise to move for leave to introduce a Bill to amend the Bombay Hereditary Offices Act III of 1874.

Three purposes underlie the Bill. The first is to permit commutation of the watan at the option of the holder, the second to provide better security for the payment of the remuneration of certain classes of watandars, and the third purpose is to provide for specification by rules of the duties to be performed by the watandars.

Sections 2-6 are designed to give effect to the first of these purposes. Sections 7-9 are intended to carry out the second purpose and section 10 is to meet the third purpose of the Bill.

Section 2 allows a watandar who wishes to do so to free himself from the liability to serve as a watandar without involving a loss to his right to the land which formed part of his watan. While it allows such a watandar to retain the land, it does not involve any loss to Government because Government will be entitled to recover from him full survey assessment.

Sections 3 and 4 are formal.

Section 5 makes it possible for one or some of the joint owners of the watan to apply tor being relieved from service.

Section 6 is intended to define more accurately who shall be liable for service to the community by the use of the word “primarily”.

Section 7 provides that there shall be no discretion left to the Collector in determining whether the collection shall be made in kind or in money.

Section 8 adds four new sections to the Act

Section 19A gives the right to watandars to apply to the Collector to convert payment in kind into payment in money and requires the Collector to convert the same in its money equivalent

Section 19B places an obligation on the Collector to collect the money cess as part of the land revenue if required to do so by the watandars.

Section 19C gives the Collector the power in cases where the remuneration of the watandar is a joint payment for services to Government as well as to

*B.L.A. Debates, Vol. 1, pp 1091-92, dated 17th September 1937.

The Bill introduced by Dr. Ambedkar is reproduced at pages 90-93