z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 768
768 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
†7533. Sir Mirza Ismail : What Lord Lothian said was that the Legislature which appoints the Government will appoint the members to the Upper House. Once these members are elected by the Legislature they cease to have any responsibility. They can express their own views, and they do not go and consult the Legislature on every point which comes up before the Federal Government. Once they are elected they are independent, but what the Federal Government would like to know would be the views of the Government of the Province.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar; The Government of the day of the Province ?
Sir Mirza Ismail: Of the day.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: And if there were a change of Government of the Province there would be a change of representation at the Centre ?
Sir Mirza Ismail: At the Centre. If you want to prevent this extreme provincialism that is already developing in India this seems to me to be the best way of doing it. You have already the popular element in the Lower House ; from the democratic standpoint there should be no objection to it because of the democratic Governments in the Provinces.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Send them with mandates to vote on a particular issue.
Mr. M. R. Jayakar: If this scheme were adopted, would it not come to this, that although normally the life of the Provincial Legislature would end in five years and, as Mr. Zafrulla Khan pointed out, the life of the Upper House would be seven years, there must be necessarily one change in the personnel.
‡7746. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I would like to ask the Secretary of State whether the Instruments of Accession that would be passed by the different States on entering the Federation would find a place in the Constitution Act?
Sir Samuel Hoare: The answer is : No, they would not.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: How would it be possible, supposing a dispute arose in a Federal Court, for the Court to determine whether any particular subject which was the subject-matter of dispute was within the competence of the Federation ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: I imagine—here I speak as a layman—they would take into account the treaty, just as they take into account treaties now.
Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru : Yes.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But it would not be part of the Constitution Act?
Sir Samuel Hoare: No ; it would not be in the Constitution Act; neither are the treaties now in any Act of Parliament, yet (Sir Tej Sapru and other Indians will correct me if I am wrong) treaties have been constantly taken into account.
† Minutes of Evidence, Vol. II-B, 25th July 1933, p. 899,
‡ Ibid., p. 901,