z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-03.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 139
ON THE BOMBAY POLICE ACT AMENDMENT BILL 139
the communication of which, might, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Police, lead to the disclosure of the identity or name of any informant.
( vii ) Any order passed by the Commissioner of Police under clause ( iii ) or by the Provincial Government under clause ( iv ) shall not have any effect after the proclamation of emergency has ceased to operate.”
After sub-clause (2), the following sub-clause shall be added, namely: —
(3) In sub-section ( 3 ) for the words, brackets, figure and letter “or (2A)” the following shall be substituted, namely : —
“(2A) or (2C)”.
Question proposed.
† Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Sir, before I proceed to deal with the merits of the amendment which I have tabled, I think it would be desirable if 1 tried to show to the House the necessity of this amendment. The Honourable the Home Minister, in introducing the Bill, has stated that the City of Bombay and its citizens are a prey and a victim to certain undesirable characters who tyrannize and molest the weaker section of the community, and the weaker section of the community has neither the determination or the desire to go to a court of law and obtain a conviction and punishment of such dangerous characters ; and consequently, he thinks that it is necessary to arm the Commissioner of Police in the very interests of the people who are being molested by these dangerous characters, so that he should take action against him. Sir, I readily agree with what he said, that the danger to which he has referred is a very real one.
If the House would allow me to say so, I am very familiar with the kind of evil to which he has referred. I have spent a very great part of my life in what I may call the underworld of Bombay City. I have lived from 1911 to 1933 in the Improvement Trust chawls among labourers and the lower classes, and I know perfectly well, more than the Commissioner of Police or the Honourable the Home Minister, how these poor people are molested by what are called mavalis and dadas, how utterly impossible it is for these victims of their to obtain any redress, because they themselves, for fear of further molestation, would not go to court of law and seek to get a conviction. I therefore think that the Bill that has been brought forward is thoroughly justified by the circumstances of the case. But I felt that there was another danger to which the citizens of this city were subjected and for which he had made no provision in this Bill. Sir, the necessity to which I refer is the necessity arising out of what are called communal riots. I have here some figures relating to the communal riots that have taken place in the City of Bombay. Between the year 1851 and 1938, there have been altogether 9 communal riots in the City of Bombay. The first riot took place on the 17th October 1851. That riot was between the Muslims and Parsis. The second riot took place in the year 1874 ; that was also between the
†B.L.A. Debates, Vol. 3, pp. 2430-33, dated 27th April 1938.