DRAFT CONSTITUTION 1081
of this Constitution that person’s seat in the said Assembly shall, unless he has ceased to be a member thereof earlier, become vacant, and every such vacancy shall be deemed to be a casual vacancy.
(4) Any person holding office immediately before the commencement of this Constitution as Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the Constituent Assembly when functioning as the Dominion Legislature under the Government of India Act, 1935, shall continue to be the Speaker or, as the case may be, the Deputy Speaker of the provisional Parliament functioning under clause (1) of this article.”
Sir, I move :
“That in amendment No. 9 of List I (Second Week), for clause (3) of the proposed article 311, the following be substituted :—
‘(3) If a member of the Constituent Assembly of the Dominion of India was on the sixth day of October, 1949, or thereafter becomes at any time before the commencement of this Constitution a member of a House of the Legislature of a Governor’s Province or an Indian State corresponding to any State for the time being specified in Part III of the First Schedule or a minister for any such State, then as from the date of commencement of this Constitution the seat of such member in the Constituent Assembly shall, unless he has ceased to be a member of that Assembly earlier, become vacant and every such vacancy shall be deemed to be a casual vacancy’.”
Sir, I move :
“That in amendment No. 9 of List I (Second Week), after clause (3) of the proposed article 311, the following new clause be inserted :—
‘( 3a ) Notwithstanding that any such vacancy in the Constituent assembly of the Dominion of India as is mentioned in clause (3) of this article has not occurred under that clause, steps may be taken before the commencement of this Constitution for the filling of such vacancy, but any person chosen before such commencement to fill the vacancy shall not be entitled to take his seat in the said Assembly until after the vacancy has so occurred.’ ”
The object of this clause is that when constituting a provisional Parliament, it is proposed to dispense with what is called double membership.
The other provisions are merely ancillary.
*Mr. President : Dr. Ambedkar, have you anything to say ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Sir, before I begin, I would like your permission to omit the word “becomes” in clause
(3) of amendment No. 195, occurring between “thereafter” and “at any time before...”. The word is unnecessary.
Now, with regard to the various amendments, it seems to me that there are only three that call for some consideration. The first is the amendment of my Friend Mr. Kamath who said that in clause ( 4 ) of this article, there is a certain account of discrepancy between the provisions relating to the
*CAD, Vol. X, 11th October 1949, pp. 98-100.