45

*ON PARTICIPATION IN THE WAR : 1

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I rise on a point of order. My point of order relates to the last part of the resolution which reads as follows : —

“This Assembly regrets that the situation in India has not been rightly understood by His Majesty’s Government when authorising the statement that has been made on their behalf in regard to India.”

Sir, I rely on rule 75 of the Bombay Legislative Assembly Rules which deals with the form and contents of resolutions. The rule reads as under : —

“Subject to the restrictions contained in these Rules, a resolution may be moved on a matter of general public interest :

Provided that no resolution shall be admissible which does not comply with the following conditions, namely :—

( a ) it shall be clearly and precisely expressed and shall raise one definite issue…………”.

My submission is that the last part of the resolution is not only not definite, but is certainly most ambiguous. The part of the resolution which I refer to says that “the situation in India has not been rightly understood by His Majesty’s Government”. My submission is that the House is entitled to know in what respect the Government of India has not rightly understood the situation in India. In that respect this part of the resolution is ambiguous. One of the fundamental principles which govern all decisions of the House is that the House ought not to leave the interpretation of any part of the decision that it takes to anybody outside it. The House ought definitely to say what it decides, and on that point I rely upon a precedent which has been referred to in the Digest of Rulings of the Presidents, Bombay Legislative Council, at page 148. Ruling No. 24 reads as follows : —

“A resolution must be definite and not ambiguous. Neither the Council nor the Government ought to be a party to an ambiguous resolution which makes its meaning not quite clear.”

I made a reference to Volume IV (1921), page 772 in connection with this ruling, and I find that this ruling arose out of an amendment moved by the honourable member Sir Dhanjishah Cooper to a resolution which referred

*B.L.A. Debates, Vol. 7, pp. 1968-69, dated 25th October 1939.