DRAFT CONSTITUTION 1107
Therefore my submission is that this is a matter of one organ of the State acting within its own limitations and obeying the supremacy of the other organs of the State. In so far as the Constitution gives a supremacy to that is a matter of constitutional obligation which is implicit in the Constitution itself.
I remember, Sir, that you raised this question and I looked it up and I had with me two decisions of the King’s Bench division which I wanted one day to bring here and refer in the House so as to make the point quite clear. But I am sorry I had no notice today of this point being raised. But this is the answer to the question that has been raised.
No constitutional Government can function in any country unless any particular constitutional authority remembers the fact that its authority is limited by the Constitution and that if there is any authority created by the Constitution which has to decide between that particular authority and any other authority, then the decision of that authority shall be binding upon any other organ. That is the sanction which this Constitution gives in order to see that the President shall follow the advice of his Ministers, that the executive shall not exceed in its executive authority the law made by Parliament and that the executive shall not give its own interpretation of the law which is in conflict with the interpretation of the judicial organ created by the Constitution.
Shri H. V. Kamath : If in any particular case the President does not act upon the advice of his Council of Ministers, will that be tentamount to a violation of the Constitution and will he be liable to impeachment?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : There is not the slightest doubt about it.
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam (Madras : General) : I may add to Dr. Ambedkar’s statement, and point out that there are certain marginal cases in which the President may not accept the advice of the Ministers. When a Ministry wants dissolution it will be open to the President to say that he will instal another Ministry which has the confidence of the majority and continue to run the administration. There are some marginal cases where he may have in the interests of responsible government itself to over-ride the advice of his responsible Ministers.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I would only like to say one thing in reply. That was once the position. It has been defined very clearly in Macaulay’s History of England what the King can do. But I say that these are matters of convention. In Canada this question arose when Mr. Mackenzie King wanted dissolution. The question was whether the Governor-General was bound to give a decision or wheher he was free