DRAFT CONSTITUTION 715
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : If there is any difficulty about the language it will be looked into by the Drafting Committee. I was explaining the technical difference between assurance and contract.
Then Mr. Tyagi asked why a person should be freed of liability if lie signs a contract. I think much of the objection raised by Mr. Tyagi would fully disappear if he were made a member of the Cabinet: I should like him to answer the question whether any contract that he has made on behalf of the Government of India should impose a personal liability on him. I am sure he knows the ordinary commercial procedure. A principal appoints an agent to do certain things on his behalf. Unless the agent has acted outside the scope of the authority conferred upon him by the principal, the agent has no personal liability in regard to any contract that he has made for the benefit of the principal. It is the same principle here. My Honourable Friend Mr. Tyagi does not know that there is a well established system in the Government of India whereby it is laid down that it is only a document or letter issued by an officer of a certain status that binds the Government of India; a document or letter issued by any other officer does not bind the Government of India. We have therefore by rule specifically to say whether it is the Under-Secretary who would have the power to bind the Government of India, or the Joint Secretary or the Additional Secretary or the Secretary alone. Therefore I do not see why the person who is acting merely on behalf of the Government of India as a signing agency should be fastened upon for personal liability, because he is acting on the authority of the Government of India or within the authority of the Government of India. If the Government of India approves of any particular transaction to which the legislature raises any objection as being unnecessary, unprofitable or outside the scope of the legislative authority conferred by Parliament upon the executive Government, it is a matter between the Government and the Parliament. Parliament may either remove the Government or repudiate the contract or do anything it likes. But I do not understand how a personal liability can be fixed upon a man who is merely appointed as an agent to assure the other party that he is signing in the name of the Government of India. There is no substance in the objection raised by my friend Mr. Tyagi.
Mr. President : I will now put the various amendments to vote.
[All the three amendments by Dr. Ambedkar were accepted. Article
273, as amended, was added to the Constitution]