564 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
required than what is contained in article 70 so far as the independent right of the President addressing the House is concerned and that is amply provided for in article 70. I therefore think that there is no necessity for this amendment at all.
[The only amendment of Prof. K. T. Shah was negatived. Article 71 was added to the constitution.]
ARTICLE 72
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I do not think Professor Shah has really understood the underlying purpose of article 72. In order that the matter may be quite clear. I might begin by stating some simple fundamental propositions. Every House is an autonomnus House that is to say, that he will not allow anybody who is not a member of that House either to participate in its proceedings or to vote at the conclusion of the proceedings. The only persons who are entitled to lake part in the proceedings and to vote are the persons who are members of that House. Now, we have got an anomalous situation and it is this. We have got two Houses so far as the Centre is concerned, the Upper House and the Lower House. It is quite possible that a person who is appointed a Minister is a member of the Lower House. If he is in charge of a particular Bill, and the Bill by the constitution requires the sanction of both the Houses, obviously, the Bill has not only to be piloted in the Lower House, but it has also to be piloted in the Upper House. Consequently, if a person in charge of the Bill is a member of the Lower House, he would not ordinarily be in a position to appear in the Upper House and to pilot the Bill unless some special provision was made. It is to enable a person who is a member of the Lower House and who happens to be the Minister in charge of a Bill, to enable him to enter the Upper House, to address it, to take part in its proceedings that article 72 is being anacted. Article 72 is really an exception to the general rule that no person can take part in the proceedings of a House unless that person is a Member of that House. It is essential that the Minister who happens to be a member of the Upper House must have the right to go to the Lower House and address it in order to get the measure through. Similarly if he is a member of the Lower House, he must have the liberty to appear in the Upper House, address it and get the measure through.
- CAD. Vol. VIII, 18th May 1949, pp. 113-14