1010 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
*Mr. President : Dr. Ambedkar, would you like to say anything?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, with regard to the amendment of my Friend, Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava, I do not think that that amendment is necessary if he is really enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court. The word “practice” is generally taken to cover matters of procedure, and article 112-B which I have proposed does not deal with procedure but deals with substantive matter of jurisdiction. Therefore his amendment “or practice” is unnecessary.
With regard to the amendment of my Friend Prof. Shibban Lal Saksena, there are two points to which I would like to reply. The first is this, that if there is to be an appeal to the Supreme Court in matters of sentence of death passed by Courts-martial, then such a provision could be easily made by the Indian Army Act giving the accused person the right to appeal, and it has been provided, if I may draw my friend’s attention to clause (1) of article 114, that the Supreme Court shall have such further jurisdiction and power with respect to any matters in the Union List. It reads : —
“114 (1) The Supreme Court shall have such further jurisdiction and powers with respect to any of the matters in the Union List as Parliament may by law confer.”
If Parliament thinks that such a power should be vested in the Supreme Court, there is no impediment in the way of Parliament making an appropriate provision in the Army Act conferring such a power on them.
Again, I should like to draw attention to article 112 which deals with matters of special need. Under that it would be open to the Supreme Court to entertain an appeal against a Court-martial because therein the words used are—
“any cause or matter made by any court or tribunal,”
and therefore, the wording being so large, no Court or tribunal could escape from the special jurisdiction of the Supreme Court provided under article 112. Therefore, my submission is that his amendment is also quite unnecessary.
With regard to the amendment of my friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad to omit the words “existing law”...
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I have not moved that.
Mr. President : He has not moved it, he has left it to the Drafting Committee.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : If he has left it to the Drafting Committee I am very glad, Sir. We shall certainly pay the best attention that his point deserves.
*CAD, Vol. IX, 15th September 1949, pp. 1495-1496.