638 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
questions of constitutional law arise, and cases where no such question arises. Appeals where constitutional points arise are provided for in article 110. Questions where Constitutional law are not involved are provided for in article 111. The reason why this separation is made between the two sorts of appeals is also probably not realised by my Friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmed. I should therefore like to make that point clear. There is going to come an amendment to article 121 which deals with the rules to be made by the Supreme Court. I have tabled an amendment to clause (2) of article 121 which says that wherever an appeal comes before the Supreme Court and it involves questions of Constitutional law, the minimum number “of judges, which would sit to hear such a case shall be five, while in other cases of appeals where no question of Constitutional law arises, we have left the matter to the Supreme Court to constitute the Bench and define the number of judges who would be required to sit on it by rules made thereunder. Now that is an important distinction, namely, that a Constitutional matter coming before the Supreme Court will be decided by a number of judges not less than five, while oilier cases of appeals may be decided by such number of judges as may be prescribed by rule. My friend therefore will understand that the existence of the words ‘as to the interpretation of this Constitution’ does not in any way debar appeals other than those in which Constitutional law is involved, and he will also understand why we propose to put these two types of appeals in two separate articles, the number of judges being different in the two cases.
Now I come to the other point which has been debated at great length, namely, whether the Supreme Court should have criminal jurisdiction or not. As I said, so far as article 110 is concerned and the amendment moved by my Friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad is concerned, all this debate is absolutely irrelevant and beside the point and really ought not to influence our decision so far as article
110 is concerned. But in as much as a great deal of debate has taken place, I would like to say a few words. Members will find that there is provision in article 110 for a criminal matter coming before the Supreme Court if that matter involves a question of Constitutional law. Therefore that is one of the ways by which criminal matters may come up and the criminal matters that may come up under article
110 may be very small matters.
Again, there is article 112 where the jurisdiction of the Privy Council