1000 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Shri T. T. Krishnamachari: I would like to mention that the formal permission of the House will have to be obtained to reopen article 250 which it will be necessary to do in respect of amendment No. 374.
Shri R. K. Sidhva : I raise a point of order that an article which has been completed and passed by the House cannot be reopened.
Mr. President: That is just the point that Mr. Krishnamachari has raised.
Shri R. K. Sidhva: No, Sir. He has moved an amendment to reopen the subject I am raising a point or order that it cannot be reopened.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: That the President will decide—whether you are right or he is right.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : There is another matter to which I would like to draw your attention. In regard to the amendment to entry 88-A it is the same amendment as that of Mr. Jhunjhunwala. It has now been stolen by the Drafting Committee and is being passed on as their own. Curiously enough, Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment No. is 379 which is the section of the Indian Penal Code relating to theft. Can this sort of literary piracy be allowed?
Mr. President: You can take credit for having pointed it out.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : He is quite content with that. He has not lodged a complaint of theft or robbery.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : But theft is a cognizable offence. It is also non-compoundable. It does not depend on the complaint of any one, absence of objection will not execuse it.
Mr. President: We shall deal with the entries first.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, when this matter came up last time before the House there was a lot of debate as to what was exactly intended, what the House could do and what I was prepared to accept. You were kind enough to say that the matter might be recommitted to the Drafting Committee. The Drafting Committee after consideration of the same has brought forth new proposals. The proposals are that newspapers and taxes on advertisements in newspapers should be put in List I. That is a matter to which the Drafting Committee has now agreed. The second amendment—No. 379—is merely a consequential thing because since newspapers and taxes on the sale of newspapers and advertisements therein have been brought into List I, it is necessary to exclude the taxation on newspapers under the Sales Tax Act and advertisement therein from the jurisdiction of the State Legislature.