REPORT OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY FUNCTIONS COMMITTEE 33
President of the Constituent Assembly. So long as the Constituent Assembly had only this single and solitary function to perform, namely, to prepare the constitution, there was no difficulty in this matter. But when the Constituent Assembly will function in its double capacity, once as the Constitution-making body and another time as a law-making body with another person at the head of it, namely, the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker, questions with regard to the adjustment of the staff may arise. But the Committee thought that they were not entitled under the terms of reference to deal with this matter and therefore did not make any reference to it at all.
Sir I do not think it is necessary for me to take the time of the House any more than I have done. I think what I have said will sufficiently remind Members of what the Committee has done and will enable them to proceed to deal with the report in the best way they like.
- Mr . President : I think we have had enough discussion on this, I would now call upon Dr. Ambedkar to reply.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Mr. President, the report made by the Committee obviously has received a mixed reception. Some members of the House have described it as a messy document. I do not propose to give any reply to those who have described the Report in those terms, because personally I think that the arguments advanced by them do not deserve sufficient consideration. All that I propose to do in reply is to meet some technical points which have been raised by my friends Dr. Deshmukh and Mr. Biswanath Das. Dr. Deshmukh refers to two recommendations made by the Committee. One was the recommendation relating to the permission to be granted to the Members representing the States for taking part in all the deliberations of the Committee. The second recommendation to which he referred was the recommendation in respect of the Ministers of the State to whom the Committee said it might not be desirable to permit to take part also in the proceedings of the Assembly. Dr. Deshmukh said that all that the Committee observed was logical or convenient. The Committeee did not say whether this was constitutional. I am very much surprised at the question particularly because Dr. Deshmukh happens to be a lawyer. As a matter of fact he ought to have realised that we have really no constitution at all. The Constituent Assembly is making a Constitution, and anything that the Constituent Assembly does would
*CAD, Official Report, Vol. V, 29th August 1947, pp. 327-31.