DRAFT CONSTITUTION 375
ARTICLE 7
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I move :
“That the following words be added at the end of article 7 :—
‘or under the control of the Government of India’.”
Sir, this amendment was thought necessary because apart from the territories which form part of India, there may be other territories which may not form part of India, but may none-the-less be under the control of the Government of India. There are many cases occurring now in international affairs where territories are handed over to other countries for the purposes of administration either under a mandate or trusteeship. I think it is desirable that there ought to be no discrimination so far as the citizens of India and the residents of those mandated or trusteeship territories are concerned in fundamental rights. It is therefore desirable that this amendment should be made so that the principle of Fundamental Rights may be extended to the residents of those territories as well.
† Mr. Vice-President : I would request Dr. Ambedkar to enlighten us about the points raised here by Mr. Ali Baig. We are laymen and we would like to hear him.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. Vice-President, I must confess that although I had concentrated my attention on the speech of my friend who moved this amendment, I have not been able to follow what exactly he wanted to know. If his amendment is to delete the whole of article 7, I can very easily explain to him why this article must stand as part of the Constitution.
The object of the Fundamental Rights is two-fold. First, that every citizen must be in a position to claim those rights. Secondly, they must be binding upon every authority—I shall presently explain what the word “authority” means—upon every authority which has got either the power to make laws or the power to have discretion vested in it. Therefore, it is quite clear that if the Fundamental Rights are to be clear, then they must be binding not only upon the Central Government, they must not only be binding upon the Provincial Government, they must not only be binding upon the Government established in the Indian States, they must also be binding upon District Local Boards, Municipalities, even village panchayats and taluk boards, in fact, every authority which has been created by law and which has got certain power to make laws, to make rules, or make by-laws.
*CAD, Vol. VII. 25th November 1948, p. 607.
† Ibid., 610.