DRAFT CONSTITUTION 565
It is for this sort of thing that article 72 is being enacted. The same applies to the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General may be a member of the Lower House. He may have to go to the Upper House but being a member of the Lower House he may not have the legal right to appear in the Upper House. Consequently the provision has been made. Similarly if he is a member of the Upper House he may not be having a legal right to enter the Lower House and address it. It is therefore for this purpose that this is enacted. We have limited this right to take part in the proceedings only. We do not thereby give the right to vote to any Minister who is taking part in the proceedings of the other House. Because we do not think that voting power is necessary to enable him to carry out the proceedings with regard to any particular Bill. I thought my friend also said that the word ‘Minister’ ought to be omitted, and the word ‘elected person’ ought to be introduced ; but that again would create difficulty because we have stated in some part of our Constitution that it should be open for a person who is not an elected member of the House to be appointed a Minister for a certain period. In order to enable even such a person it is necessary to introduce the word ‘Minister’ and not ‘person’ .That is the reason why the word ‘Minister’ is so essential in this context. I oppose the amendment.
[Amendment of Prof. K. T. Shah was negatived and Article 72 was added to the Constitution.]
ARTICLE 73
*The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Bombay : General) : Mr. President,. Sir, I cannot help saying that the amendment moved by Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad is a throughly absurd one and is based upon an utter misconception of what the clause deals with. He does not seem to understand that there is a distinction between re-election of a person to the same office and a new election. What we are dealing with in article 73 is not re-election, but a new election. A new election is the result of a vacancy in the office by reason of the circumstances mentioned in article 74. By reason of article 74 the same person has ceased to be a member of the House and obviously, that person having ceased to be
*CAD, Vol. VIII, 19th May 1949, p. 119.