z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 774
774 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Sir Samuel Hoare: It would then mean a default, would it not, on the part of a State ?
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes, supposing the State does not pay. I am assuming only one case now, for the moment ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: The Viceroy then, I assume, could intervene.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: The Viceroy, as you know, is outside the Federal Constitution ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: If Dr. Ambedkar will look at paragraph 129, he will see there : “The Governor-General will be empowered in his discretion to issue general instructions to the Government of any State-Member of the Federation for the purpose of ensuring that the Federal obligations of that State are duly fulfilled.”
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: Yes. What I want to say is this. Paragraph
129, if I may make the distinction, only gives the Governor-General the power to give a direction. It does not give the Governor-General the power to take remedial measures, if the directions are not obeyed ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: The Act nowhere provides explicit sanctions in situations of that kind either for the Provinces or for the States.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: For the Provinces it does, because the Governor has a special responsibility to see that the orders of the Governor-General are carried out and obeyed, and to that extent he will be directly under the control of the Governor-General, and so provision does there exist, so far as the relations between the Provinces and the’ Centre are concerned, that his orders will be carried out ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: 1 think there is just the same sanction. Is there not, with the Governor-General and the States ?
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: No, if I may say so, as you explained on the Memorandum on the Instrument of Instructions if he disobeyed, the Governor could be recalled. There is no such provision in the relations between the States and the Centre ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: In each case the responsibility is the responsibility of the Governor-General at his discretion, that is to say, subject to his instructions from here.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But my point is that just as the Governor would be subject to the power of the Governor-General with respect to the administration of the Province, the ruler of a State is not subject to the directions of the Governor-General beyond, I suppose, the administration of such matters which appertain to the Federation; that is with the Viceroy.
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: But, as you said, the paramountcy will be assigned to the Viceroy, and not to the Governor-General ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Yes, but nevertheless the result will be the same.
Mr. Zafrulla Khan: The Governor-General will formally make a request to the Viceroy and the Viceroy will thereupon act.