DRAFT CONSTITUTION 1011
Mr. President : Then I will put the amendments.
Prof. Shibban Lal Saksena : In view of the assurances given, I would like to withdraw my amendments.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I too am withdrawing my amendment, Sir.
The amendments were, by leave of the Assembly, withdrawn.
(Article 112B was added to the Constitution.)
NEW ARTICLE 15A
*Mr. President : Then we go back to New Article 15A.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move :
“That after article 15, the following article be inserted : —
‘15A. ( 1 ) No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being Protection against certain informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrests and detentions. arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult a legal practitioner of his choice.
(2) Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the magistrate and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a magistrate.
(3) Nothing in this article shall apply—
(a) to any person who for the time being is an enemy alien; or
(b) to any person who is arrested under any law providing for preventive detention :
Provided that nothing in sub-clause (b) of clause (3) of this article shall permit the detention of a person for a longer period than three months unless—
(a) an Advisory Board consisting of persons who are or have been or are qualified to be appointed as judges of a High Court has reported before the expiration of the said period of three months that there is in its opinion sufficient cause for such detention,
or
(b) such person is detained in accordance with the provisions of any law made by Parliament under clause (4) of this article.
(4) Parliament may by law prescribe the circumstances under which and the class or classes of cases in which a person who is arrested under any law providing for preventive detention may be detained for a period longer than three months and also the maximum period for which any such person may be so detained’.”
Sir, the House will recall that when at a previous session of this Assembly we were discussing article 15, there was a great deal of controversy on the issue as to whether the words should be “except according to procedure established by law”, or whether the words “due process” should be there in place of the words which now find a place
*CAD, Vol. IX, 15th September 1949, pp. 1496-1498.